Last week I wrote about the tools and resources you can use for success and personal development, and this got me thinking about where my journey actually began. What was the spark that kicked off this journey to a better me?  It wasn’t the Tony Robbins seminar in London in 2006, neither was it any of the books I read. Even my divorce from my first husband in 2005 was just a consequence of what I had put in motion a couple of years earlier in Milan. What happened there was more significant: I bought a pair of pink shoes.

It was one of those ‘girls’ trips’. I had come to Milan with my best friend and we were, of course, shopping. We came across a Luciano Padovan shoe shop, not a very known brand at the time, but his shoes were quite radical. It was love at first sight. All his designs screamed disobedience. And that’s exactly what I wanted to indulge in that day. My conscious mind wasn’t aware of it at the time but love is experienced at a much deeper level. I was guided by my emotions when I bought that pair of pink sling-backs.

A chain of events unfolded. My ex-husband strongly disproved of the shoes. ‘Hookerish’, he pronounced them. But I was desperately looking to break free from the ‘perfect wife’ image I had created in order to be the person he wanted me to be.

Fast forward two years and our marriage was on the rocks and a year later we were divorced. I’m convinced that my husband hated the shoes because it was from the moment I brought them home that he felt he was losing his grip on me. I have never let anyone bully me to believe anything about myself based on my shoe choices since!

It was my subconscious mind at work in that shoe shop in Milan. I needed a tool, a weapon, but I didn’t choose it consciously.

We can also use material objects deliberately to announce we have chosen a new direction in our lives. It’s common to sport a new hair cut after a major life change.

I love Juliana’s story. She came to the DrivenWoman groups last summer as she wanted to learn to express her personality better and to appear more feminine. Her first daily task she set for herself was ‘to wear mascara every day’. This may sound quite trivial to most of us but for her it was a powerful tool to remind herself of the journey she was embarking on. She’s flourished ever since but it was the mascara that got her started.

Has your personal journey got a material manifestation? Any pink shoes in your wardrobe? What items have been used as a vehicle for change in your journey? Please share your story!

~ Miisa

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