Isn’t it annoying when your lace suddenly comes undone and you can’t figure out why, especially when you didn’t do anything different this time? Still, you stop, tie it to make sure you don’t trip up and hurt yourself. Then on you go with your day not giving it a second thought.
The thing about shoe laces are they quietly do an important job. They keep your shoes to protect your feet. You tie them in the morning, forget about them for the rest of the day, and only notice them again when it is time to take your shoes off at the end of the day or when they mysteriously come undone when you are out and about.
Although this may seem odd, I think this is a good analogy for your day or even your life. Day by day you take care of the small, seemingly insignificant things without putting too much thought into it, but without those little actions, everything can literally fall apart.
For example, without petrol in a car, you can’t go anywhere, without food in your belly, you are hungry, irritable and lack energy – or maybe that is just me. It’s like getting dressed and realising you forgot to put your underwear on first (no you are not superman), you can’t ignore it, you have to go back and fix it. The little things that generally seem non important, are often the things that keep your day running smoothly.
In your everyday life what supports you without you even noticing? Perhaps you organise your clothes the night before to save time in the morning, the minutes it takes you just do it. Forget to do that and you are standing in front of your wardrobe for 10 minutes trying to decide what to wear, before throwing something on and rushing out the door. Or maybe you forgot to set your alarm and although you have an amazing sleep, you wake up all flustered and end up running around all morning trying to make up the time to ensure you arrive at work for 9am.
On the flip side, when your lace does come undone, it forces you to stop and fix it. Are you good at stopping when something needs your attention or do you ignore it and hope it’ll go away?
An undone shoe lace is an easy fix. Worse case scenario, you don’t re-tie it and instead you end up going head over heels, crashing down onto the pavement, cutting your head, twisting your ankle and feeling rather mortified. You hobble where you need to get to, or you may have to go to A&E all the while wishing you had taken a moment to tie your lace.
Taking care of small issues, will likely result in a quick and easy fix with little time or resource. Waiting and hoping it will go away or ignoring them completely will more likely result in the problem getting worse. For example. you notice a mark on your ceiling – no big deal. A few days later it’s a bit darker and bigger but you continue to ignore it. Then it is bulging and whilst you are slightly concerned, you continue on. By the following day it is dripping quite badly and before you know it, you are paying for an emergency plumber, repairs and new patch on your roof. All because you didn’t check it out when you first noticed it.
You might think it sounds ridiculous, but it does happen and we all do it. We talk ourselves out of taking action because it feels like it isn’t a big deal and it won’t matter. But those tiny things – the undone shoelace, the forgotten alarm, the drip on the ceiling – are often things that save us from bigger problems later.
The small and insignificant things are often what makes us pause, notice and take care. It might be tying your shoe or checking a ceiling mark, but ignoring these little signals can be the difference between one minute of effort and hours or days of stress. So the next time your shoe lace comes undone, stop and tie it the moment you notice, to avoid any unnecessary injury.
Thank you for reading, have a lovely week.
Look after you. Love Emma xx
Wellbeing with Relaxing Lavender 