Today’s message might sound like a contradiction: previous posts on this site have invited you to take your work seriously, show up fully, give the best of yourself when you’re in the kitchen and be proud of what you do as a chef.
My invitation to you now, is to also be playful in your work. What’s equally important as being serious about your work is to approach it with a sense of lightness. Let me explain, rather than leave you shaking your head in confusion.
Most of us think that working hard is the only way. Push, push. Giving it all you’ve got. Making it happen. No matter what. Maybe that’s what gets you through every service! But what does it call us to do and be? Stressed, overwhelmed, forceful, aggressive and eventually burnt-out because can you sustain this service-after-service, year-after-year?
I repeat: the call here is to be serious about your work, but to also show up with playfulness. Please pay close attention. You do whatever it is that you need to do, but you detach yourself from the outcome. In a way, you’re not forcing the result that you want, but are going along with flow of life.
The truth is that you’ll get there anyway. But how do you want to get there, is the question. You can choose to go the burnout route if you want to. If that’s all you trust. But the real magic happens when you take powerful steps towards your intentions but when it comes to the end result, you let it take the shape it’s meant to. You have this sense of trust that you’ve done your best, so things will work out.
This is the difference: there are chefs who prowl up and down the pass, yelling, micromanaging, forcing perfection on their team. Then there are others who rally their troops around them just before service, give clear instructions, allow them to find their own perfection, support those who need a little more help, maintain their sense of humour and therefore have the energy to add something more. And they’re able to draw something extra out of their team.
Can you see the difference that the quality of lightness brings?