Pet Peeve

Here's one of my biggest pet peeves ... people who look down as they walk.

I can't even begin to put into words how much this bothers me. Nothing says someone has a serious lack of self confidence more than walking along with their head down. I can think of only a few instances in which you should be looking at the ground as you're walking:

1. You're in an area frequented by dogs or Canada Geese.
   
2. There's a genuine safety concern about where you are walking.
   
3. You're retracing your steps looking for something.
   
4. You have a physical ailment that prevents you from looking straight ahead was you walk.

I was never aware of this issue until I studied karate as a pre-teen a looooong time ago. My instructor, Rick LeClair (I still remember his name!), was forgettable in many respects but he did teach me this one thing that I'll remember for the rest of my life. And ever since I was made aware, it's the first thing I notice about someone whether I know them or not ... for me, it speaks volumes about a person.

So I was in a class one Saturday morning and Rick would start each session talking about what we had learned so far, how to conduct ourselves inside and outside the class, etc. One day, he said the following (I'm paraphrasing, of course, but the essence of his message remains):

"Whenever you walk alone or with others, you should always hold your head high and look straight ahead. You all work hard and you should be very proud of that. People who look down as they walk often have little self confidence or feel (consciously or subconsciously) that they have accomplished nothing in life. You are not one of those people because the very fact that you are here means you have accomplished much ... you have done something you should be very proud of. I don't want to see anyone walking with their head down."

For me, this was one of those "Ah, ha!" moments people talk about and I'm amazed that 25+ years later, I think of this every single time I see someone walking with their head down.