My friend Monchi, from Panama, was planning a party with his friend Mariana. The issue was, they wanted to throw it at her recently renovated home, but Mariana had just had her wood floors re-done, and she didn’t want people stomping in on a humid night putting pockmarks into the fresh finish with their high heels.

“It’s tacky to ask people to take their shoes off inside, right?” he asked.

“Right,” she said. “But it’s also tacky to say they’re not allowed inside at all.”

Then she stumbled upon the perfect solution: They’d throw a “Chancletini Party!”

In Panama, the word chancleta means “flip-flop” (i.e. those rubber beach shoes). This party, therefore, would serve martinis to guests required to wear flip-flops.

Well . . . people went nuts for it. They went on chancleta shopping trips, buying wacky pairs from the 99 cents store, or ones decorated with cartoon characters or big plastic flowers. The first thing people did when they walked in the room was point at one anothers’ feet and whoop and laugh.

“Half the photos people took at the party were of peoples’ feet,” said Monchi. 

Guests loved it so much they’re asking for a Chancletini II—and all of this sprouted from Mariana’s fear that her floors would be mussed. The party hosts took what seemed like a negative request that people not wear shoes inside the house and flipped it so well, people are now begging for another party so they don’t have to wear shoes inside the house.

The lesson? There is always another way to look at things, a solution for handling something by making a different physical or mental or emotional choice. Think about that the next time you find yourself in a mental pickle: Is there another angle to this? Should I come at this from the other side? Singleness is also freedom. Loneliness is also time to think. Moments of frustration or desperation are also forms of passion: You wouldn’t feel that bad sometimes if you didn’t want what it is so much.

I say, pull a page from Mariana’s Chancletini Party. If you’re feeling all flop-like, flip it, and find the good on the other side.

Big love,