Footwear Theory of Motivation

Generally, I read the daily Dilbert cartoon strip with my morning coffee at work – have a chuckle and/or sometime frown and look over my shoulder (because the cartoon strip has hit too close to home for me) – look at the work stack of the day & time permitting, read the Dilbert blog as well …

The 23rd May 2007 blog entry was something that really added value to me personally (just as it would to many others – you know which one of you I am referring to!). It simply had to be re-posted here for discussion because personally I can vouch – it really works as described. Give it a shot …

Oh and another rejoinder to this theory – ensure that your place is clean & comfy looking and cozy feeling in order that she takes ‘em off !

Source: Dilbert’s blog entry

I once had a boss who shared his theory for seducing a woman. I’m not sure if it was genius or insanity. His theory is so simple it has to be one or the other. His two step secret to seduction:

1. Take her to your place.
2. Get her to take off her shoes.

That’s it.

His observation, after years of playboy behavior, is that a woman who takes off her shoes at your place isn’t planning to put them back on until morning. If she doesn’t take them off, she’s mentally prepped for a quick escape.

You might wonder if removing shoes causes the sex or it’s simply a sign of comfort that predicts it. Either way, it’s good to know. I leave you with that question and move to a related one I discovered on my own.

Years ago I discovered that I could put myself in any mood by my choice of footwear. For example, no matter how tired I was, putting on tennis shoes immediately put me in the mood for working out. Putting on my work shoes put me in a business frame of mind. Going barefoot relaxed me. And so on.

A year ago I was taking dance lessons to prepare for my wedding. I wore tuxedo-quality shoes to the lessons because I wanted to match the look and feel of the wedding dance. After a few months of lessons, putting on the shoes was enough to totally put me in the dancing mood. The before and after feelings were quite distinct.

And so I have generalized these observations to what I call the Footwear Theory of Motivation. It states that you can put anyone in the mood for anything by the right choice of footwear.

As silly as the Footwear Theory of Motivation sounds, it has plenty of scientific backing. On some level, it’s not much different from Pavlov’s research on dogs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov

If you always wear the same type of footwear in the same situations, your body learns to automatically adjust to that situation when the shoes go on (or off). It would be surprising if the Footwear Theory of Motivation did NOT work.

The only question is the size of the effect. I think it’s huge.