I am admitting — note it here and now — I selected the WRONG BOOTS to wear while at a conference last week.

I have no idea what I was thinking. Sure, I was distracted with worry about my spouse and having guests in the house while I was packing, but I really should have given two more minutes of thought before just picking out a couple pairs of boots and going to California.

What boots were wrong and why?

If I had thought for a millisecond before my trip, I would have realized that since I was facilitating an entire conference, which included setting up the audiovisual equipment, preparing handouts, displaying directional signs to breakout rooms, and presenting at the podium to make introductions of speakers and giving several presentations myself — I would be on my feet for about 14 hours straight.

But noooooo… I didn’t think of the standing, running around, stair climbing, and frequent activity in which I would be engaged.

I just thought of selecting boots that would look good with dress clothes (“smart” business casual — dress slacks, collared shirt, but no jacket or tie). I also thought that I would have to take my boots off while going through airport security, so I wanted to have boots that were easy to remove and put back on without creating a spectacle.

I picked out black “mad dog” soft leather Lucchese cowboy boots. These are low-key and look good, and have felt comfortable “enough” while wearing them to work. I also smiled when I saw my new pair of Lucchese Classic smooth ostrich ropers that I received as a gift recently, so I threw them in my suitcase, thinking they would look good on the days that I wore khakis.

Man, I couldn’t have selected worse boots. The soft leather on the “mad dog” Luccheses was the only soft thing about them. The soles felt hard as a rock by the time I got to San Francisco on my flight there, my feet were already sore.

Instead of buying or borrowing some more comfortable boots when I visited Stompers Boots, I just sucked it up and thought “it will be okay; I’m just tired.” I changed to the smooth ostrich ropers which I wore with leather jeans to dinner that night, and by the time I returned to my hotel, my feet were also quite achy.

Arrrgggh! It got even worse the next day. Again, I pulled on the ropers with jeans and walked around San Francisco that morning to meet a colleague for breakfast, attend a meeting, then commute via BART to an outlying station where another colleague picked me up to take me to our meeting location to set up.

While setting up for my meeting, I slipped into my hotel room and pulled off those boots. I noticed a hole in both heels of my socks. Not good. The boots look great but are uncomfortable — hard soles again. Ugggh.

I pulled on another pair of thick socks and then hobbled to the closest drug store and bought gel insoles. I did not even care that they were not on sale–my feet were screaming for them.

The gel insoles helped for the rest of the week. But I seriously learned a lesson. If I will be on my feet as actively as I was at this meeting, then choose boots that have much better, soft insoles. No one would have noticed if I wore Chippewa Firefighter boots. Those type of boots are worn by many of the men who attended the conference that I managed.

I should have re-read this blog and heeded my own advice. If on your feet all day — choose comfort over design.

Life is short: pay attention to your own advice.