Changes to Enhance Attractiveness

Window flower boxes seen while walking in Bamberg, Germany

I have always loved how Germans dress up their windows with flower boxes. Many of my Cedar Park neighbors also dress up their yards with very nice landscaping and my wife and I have created nice landscaping in some areas of our yard, but a lot more needs doing. For the most part, people try to make a good impression on others by dressing up their surroundings, and themselves.

A few weeks ago I saw an article online where it was emphatically stated that women don't think men wearing tennis shoes (sic) to work is appropriate or attractive. That stuck in my mind because, as an engineer, I had not thought about my footwear in terms of attractiveness and I wore New Balance Shoes to work nearly every day, whether it was with jeans or dockers. I always put comfort first, especially after I started standing at work all day.

After reading that article however, I started wearing dress shoes and loafers to work more frequently and the New Balance shoes much less frequently and it occurred to me this morning that my change in shoes would make a good topic for today's blog. Why did I change my behavior after reading that article? Seriously! I've been married 32 years, (33 in May) and I'm not "on the hunt" so to speak, so why, after reading an article about tennis shoes not being attractive, did I start wearing loafers and dress shoes instead of tennies?

Even when I wore tennies to work, I always wore nice clothes above the shoes. I'm no fashion plate in any sense, but I like to wear nice dockers or quality jeans with quality button-up and polo-style shirts. I almost never wear t-shirts to work even though it's perfectly acceptable. Mainly, my choice in how I dress for work is a function of having worn an Army uniform for 12 years. To my way of thinking dressing nice carries on the uniform tradition I learned and it presents a professional face to the world which I hope speaks to my competence. In fact, during the years I worked as a manager, I almost always dressed in slacks and button-up shirts because that fit my ideal of a manager's appropriate uniform. While manager, I relegated Jeans and tennis shoes to casual Friday (even though that's not a work dress policy.)

So, back to the shoes - I changed my behavior after reading that article, which means I do wish to be attractive to people, and women in particular. I guess the shoes are my way of putting the flower box in the window - it's put there to let neighbors and passers-bye know you care about the appearance of your surroundings. In the same vein (vain?) I started wearing the dress shoes to show that I care about my appearance as does my pursuing fitness. Although the health benefits stand foremost in mind, as I want to live and enjoy life a lot longer than my father, I believe a side effect of attaining fitness is an improvement in appearance.

Today I appear to have regained energy after the lag of the past two days. I reached a new record of 240 Kettlebell swings, and another record 4 Turkish Get Ups on each side, with all but the last left side TGU of the "strong man" style. It felt great to tackle all of that!