The State of Your Sock Drawer

I want you to get up and go over to your sock drawer. It may also be where you keep your undies, too. Maybe you have them split up. Whatever your arrangement, I want you to take a good, long look in there. Pull out one or two pairs of socks and undergarments. Assess the state of them. Survey your drawers, in general.

Are they packed tightly?

Is there room to breathe?

Are things mismatched? Do you have lots of socks with no twin?

Are there holes in things? Rips? Tears? Are things faded and threadbare or stained?

I want you to consider the state of your sock drawer as an indicator of your life, in general. I remember learning about this during my studies at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Every time I do a gut check of how things are going in my life, I start with my sock drawer.

I have two seasons of socks, basically. I have smaller, thinner summer socks and thicker, heavier fall/winter socks. I trade them out and store them during their off-season. This makes room and keeps me present for the season at hand. I don't have holes, tears or major stains on my socks. Underwear, same thing. In fact, I recently went and purchased a nice new package of Fruit of the Loom undies that I really loved from Old Navy. I have a lot of different brands but those really feel best. Is this an overshare? Perhaps for some of you. I'm sharing this much detail because I'm trying to show you how much I pay attention to this stuff. It matters. The intention and attention I bring to the very basics of what I wear each and every day is correlated to how I show up for my whole life.

The investment I make in my socks and underwear shows up in my investment in myself. When I didn't prioritize my sock drawer, I also didn't prioritize myself. I didn't book massages or coaching sessions with people or therapy or dental appointments or things like the brand-new Macbook Air I'm typing on this very moment.

I remember very well what this time in my life was like. When I had lots of money from a stable job, I was in the worst financial situation of my life. In the past 5 years, as I've worked tirelessly to build and earn income as an entrepreneur and recover from failed attempts (as well as put myself through grad school and fund my own major surgery that cost 5K+) I've learned a lot about my relationship to money. I've been financially independent since I was 16 years old. That's a long time to spend negotiating with dollars and cents. A lot of people have written about this topic, but I have a unique tale to tell--and I think the biggest lesson I've learned is the more I invest in myself in meaningful ways, the more my life improves.

As a business owner, I learned that I have to spend money to make more of it to live the life I want to live. And that life is different from the lives other people want to live. And I practice this, time after time, with smaller things like my socks and underwear.

Recently, I assessed the state of my undershirts. I wear white undershirts under everything. In the past year or so I went from wearing size SMALL to MEDIUM. I've grown a bit and the smalls were becoming comically ill-fitting. They showed signs of wear and tear, too. A part of me really had a hard time letting go of them. My former self fit those shirts just fine. It may sound silly but it was hard to accept that something simple like a stained undershirt held so much significance.

But they were yellowed and small and I looked a little silly. They no longer matched the present me. It was time to get a new package of bright white t-shirts--and the many things that represents for me.

Like I said, this may sound silly to you but I want you to take a good look at your drawers and see what you see. I am sharing this because I've seen it show up with my clients time after time. I've seen that someone walking around with holes that are bigger than the remaining sock material also seems to struggle with finding the money for just about anything that allows her to thrive. Not just get by, but thrive.

See what your sock drawer is telling you and I want to give you some homework. If the state of your sock drawers tells you that you need some new additions, go do it. Go to the store and pick out a few new pairs of socks. Splurge on a package of underwear or t-shirts or a couple new bras.

Pay very close attention to how the whole thing feels to you---from the noticing of your drawer right now to the action of getting in your car or on your bikes or the bus and get new things. Just notice it. Don't judge yourself.

I got super pumped when I went and got new socks, t-shirts and undies recently. It was fun to notice how much of a thrill I got from folding the new things after being freshly washed. I looked at my week and saw the correlation to other spending and earning I had done and all felt right in my world.

Hard to believe something so small could mean so much.

PS if you do go out shopping for new stuff, I want to celebrate you. Send me your pics for a chance to win a free coaching session with me! We can talk about your new purchase, or anything you want, really.

Email your pics and captions to dillan [at] dillandigi [dot] com.

Image courtesy of What Bart is Wearing