These boots are made for walking…

These boots are made for walking…

And that’s just what they’ll do.

Sang Nancy Sinatra eons ago!

I bought my granddaughter a pair of boots to give her at Christmas. Iris – aged 12 and ¾ months – LOVES shoes and boots. I hasten to add that she only has one pair of shoes and some wellies currently, her mother isn’t indulging her in Imelda Marcus style, but she picks up everyone’s shoes and has been seen to put her baby-sized tootsies into her father’s big boots!

She is very sturdy on her feet and stamps the ground beautifully.

At the risk of sounding weird, I have been watching how people use their feet. Out for a walk yesterday, we saw a jogger jogging on their toes. They went down on their toes first and actually barely did the heels hit the ground. This makes a huge pressure on your knee joints as well as your toes as the impact ricochets through your body. Heels down first is the rule.

In a class teaching resilience and confidence, I had to correct people who were practising a power pose – on their toes. This completely negated the effect of the power-pose, because you are wobbling around and so it is the very antithesis of being grounded.

Standing strong and grounded is vital to being able to feel and sound confident and resilient. How we are in our body is directly linked to how we feel and how others perceive us. Just standing strongly with feet firmly on the ground, whether you are wearing shoes or not, means that you will actually FEEL confident and resilient. Mind and body are linked, working together. Others will see you as that as well. Dangle your feet, cross them as you are standing, and lift your heels up so you have no firm attachment to the ground and you will sound as if you have no firm attachment to what you are saying. You may well be disbelieved.

Stand strongly and you will be able to think and speak strongly, and whoever you are talking to will pick that strongness up. It all starts with being and feeling grounded.

So when we’re wearing heels – how does that work?

I think you can stand firm in heels – it just takes practise. Look at the fabulous dancers in Strictly Come Dancing, all accomplishing fantastic stomps and steps in heels. Not a good idea to live our lives in them, but if you want to put on a pair to compliment that outfit and your “look” for the speech, that’s fine. Just remember to practise actually wearing them.

As I heard that fine actress Harriet Walter say, “I start with the shoes, get them right first.” She was talking about getting a character right, because once you feel how they look you can find the truth. It is equally the same about knowing how you are going to feel as you deliver your truth and knowing that you won’t be wobbling all over the place.

The same is true for sitting at your laptop and delivering a webinar. Even there, sit with your feet firmly on the ground, as you will feel more confident, and I promise it will be felt through the ether by your audience too.

Now those of you who know the rest of the song our Nancy was singing know that it goes on:

“And one of these days these boots are going to walk all over you…” 

Ok the song was going somewhere else. For the purpose of this blog post, let’s change the words to:

“One of these days these boots are going to walk my walk to you…”

Any time Iris… any time.

If you would be interested in taking part in one of Fiona’s upcoming workshops to show you how to “find” your own strong individual voice, to feel and sound confident and resilient, do contact her on fiona@locuscoaching.com and ask for details.

---

Comments