Did you know that your feet can get bigger as an adult? I had no idea. I assumed that, once I reached a certain age, my shoe size was fixed. Apparently, I was wrong.

For years, I wore size 12 shoes. It didn’t matter what brand or style, size 12 fit me. Then, one day, certain shoes, shoes I had been wearing for a long time, started to feel snug and uncomfortable around my toes, so I had to switch brands.

A few years later, I began noticing that all of my sneakers were becoming increasingly uncomfortable. This caused me to buy my first pair of wide running shoes. That helped for a while, but not for long. So I decided to try a different size shoe. I got a pair of size 13’s and, lo and behold, they fit me.

Many size 13 shoes later and I began having the same problem. Frustrated, I went to get my feet measured at the local running store. The gentleman helping me told me that he wasn’t surprised that my shoes were uncomfortable because they were 13’s and my feet were a half size bigger than that.

In spite of my beliefs, over the past two decades my feet have grown a full size and a half. I attribute it to the amount of time I spend barefoot on the soft jiu-jitsu mats, but it doesn’t really matter why my feet have gotten bigger.

What matters is the fact that my beliefs and my inability to see past them have caused me years worth of unnecessary pain and discomfort, the solution to which was merely asking for help and accepting that I was wrong.

How are your beliefs keeping you unnecessarily uncomfortable?