It's a tricky one. Doing what everyone else wants you to do means you don't disappoint the people around you. But do you disappoint yourself in the process?

Sometimes life lessons creep up on you in the most unusual way.

For my youngest son, he had a life lesson to learn. He has just joined his local athletics club. He loves to run but in the past we have just pointed him in the direction of the finish line and said don't stop running till you get to the end.

Desperate to do well, he spent a week begging for proper running shoes. I thought you could just wear regular sandshoes, but apparently when you are an Olympic athlete in the making the right gear is essential.

In the local sports shop we find two pairs of running shoes. One pair is blue and green, the other orange and purple.

The shoes are exactly the same except for the colour.

The blue pair is sitting on the shelf next to last season's blue pair, and the orange pair is sitting next to last season's pink pair.

Although not labelled, these are clearly 'boy' shoes and 'girl' shoes.

The trouble for my son is that he is drawn to the orange and purple pair.

He tries them both on and then we decide to think about it.

For a week, he keeps asking me which pair he should choose.

Now the stereotype 'boy' pair will not cause any stir. No one will even notice his new running shoes.

But if he gets the typical 'girl' pair, he might be teased by his new athletics friends.

The trouble he is doesn't want blue shoes, but he wants to fit in.

So we talk... how long might the teasing go on for if his friends think he is wearing girl-coloured shoes? Maybe a minute or two.

And how long he will be wearing the shoes for? An entire season.

So is it worth buying the shoes that will ensure he fits in, but then wear shoes he doesn't like for months and months?

In my life there are times when I look back and feel disappointed it was more important to me to fit in than to be true to myself.

Life is full of these types of decisions and in this moment, I knew I wanted to help my son be his own man and not be swayed by what society may say is normal.

Finally, after standing in front of these two pairs of shoes for what seemed like an eternity, he picked up the orange and purple shoes and bought them.

And for the record, his lovely new friends were so excited when he arrived at the track, the colour was irrelevant; they were just happy to see their new running mate.