Get off on the right foot

Get off on the right foot

Today’s expression is to “get off on the right foot.” The opposite is to get off on the wrong foot. We use these twin idioms—get off on the right foot, and get off on the wrong foot—when we’re talking about how something begins. Does it begin well or does it begin badly? It’s very common to use this when talking about a relationship. It could be a friendship, a romantic relationship, or something more professional.

Have you seen the show “Emily in Paris?” I have seen both seasons. It’s about a young American who is sent to work in an office in France. She only speaks English, the people in the French office don’t want her there, and she quickly tries to change the way the people in France run their business. You can imagine how that went over : not well. She gets off on the wrong foot with her colleagues in France. Their professional relationship starts badly.

You can also get off on the wrong foot with people outside the workplace. This is funny. When I moved into my current apartment, I decided to refinish the hardwood floors. This was six years ago. The floors were old and scuffed up when I bought the apartment. And I knew the only time I could ever refinish all the floors was before I moved in, before I had any furniture. The problem is, refinishing hardwood floors (a) makes a lot of noise, and (b) smells really, really bad. And the smell was not contained to just my unit.

I did give everyone some fair warning. I did say that this would happen just once. I did apologize in advance. We all have back doors, open to the outside, which we can use if the smell in the lobby and stairway is too bad. And yet. There was a neighbor who made no shortage of comments about how disruptive the smell was and how much he thought nobody should refinish their floors because of the smell.

That neighbor and I got off on the wrong foot. The first impression this neighbor had of me was someone who—before even showing up in person—caused a lot of disruption in the building. The first impression I had of this neighbor was someone who complained a lot about a minor disruption that would go away within 24 hours. Suffice to say, we got off on the wrong foot.

When you’re talking about a relationship between two people, it’s much more common to use “get off on the wrong foot.” That’s a polite way of saying that an interpersonal relationship started badly. I say “polite” because it’s a way of saying a relationship started badly without casting blame.

So that’s relationships. The other way to use it is with processes or time periods. And this is how I used it today. I said I like to open my journaling app in the morning to get the day off on the right foot. That means, I like to use the app to start the day well.

When we say “get off on the right foot,” we’re often using this with an aspiration, with what we hope will happen. We’re often saying that we want to start something well. I like to get my day off on the right foot by using a journaling app. You might like to get your day off on the right foot by doing a little yoga or meditation or exercise in the morning. Some people like to get the year off on the right foot by setting new year’s resolutions or setting achievable goals.

I just got called for jury duty; in fact, when this lesson comes out, I might be serving on a jury. I’ve been on a jury once before. It was years ago in New York. After the trial ended, we jurors sat in a private room for our deliberations, to determine if the defendant was guilty under the law.

We wanted to get our discussions off on the right foot by sharing our perspectives, but not arguing with each other. We knew we had a job to do, so we wanted to get off on the right foot, we wanted to start the process on a positive note. So we started the discussions by sharing the strongest part of each side of the case. Each one of us said, what was the strongest part of the prosecutor’s case and what was the strongest part of the defense’s case. That let us share perspectives without anyone feeling defensive and without people dividing into sides. We got those discussions off on the right foot; we started our discussions well. And we eventually all agreed on a verdict.

JR’s song of the week

It’s already summer, tomorrow is July 1 and at least where we live, it’s getting nice and warm. So JR has chosen a summer song, it’s called “California Dreamin’” by the Beach Boys. And the song is really about being away from California in the fall or winter, and dreaming about how it’s always warm and sunny in southern California. Well for a few months, we get to experience warm weather all the time here, so thanks JR for that song of the week.

See you next time!

That’s all for today’s lesson, number 481 for June 30, 2022. Just a heads up, I want you to check your podcast feed tomorrow—Friday—for a special message from me. This is going to be just an extra bonus audio with some exciting news. I didn’t want to take away from the lesson content, but I do have an important message for you. So check your podcast feed tomorrow, July 1, 2022, for that message.

We’ll be back here on Monday, like always, with a new lesson. I still owe you the topic about golf, so maybe that will be Monday’s lesson. See you then.