Did you have a good break, chefs?
After a month away from Love Letters to Chefs, I feel I still haven’t settled into the new year. I took the time to really feel into what I want to create for you this year. There are so many directions in which I can take this project. My audience of chefs is still quite small, so I couldn’t really ask you for feedback. But I made enough space for that inner voice to show me the way. Your ego might say do one thing, but it’s the inner guidance that indicates to you what really needs to be done.
The spark came from my first Twitter follower, who, over the holidays, expressed that his goal was to lead a kitchen this year. That beautiful sharing became my compass.
I want to help you achieve your goals in 2017.
For sure, you know fully well what you need ‘to do’ to get there. But the big leaps come from learning how ‘to be’. It’s lifting your inner game that I want to help you with. And I will join you on this journey with my own goals for the next 11 months.
Are you in, chef?
After reading your mission statement, I see you have the opportunity to write dozens of articles on self-care with a slant towards chefs. You even listed the topics you are going to write about. Start at the top with; Feeling like the world doesn’t completely acknowledge your hard work; feeling unseen and unheard? It is true people don’t have a clue to what the life is all about. Tell them. Don’t let your idea fizzle.
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As a chef, you can probably relate to some or all of these issues:
Feeling like the world doesn’t completely acknowledge your hard work; feeling unseen and unheard
Cooking for people all day but giving little or no thought to your own nourishment
Working in a toxic work environment with little room for progress
Being constantly judged if you’re good enough, and projecting that same judgement on others
Being burnt-out
Largely putting other people’s agendas before your own
Living in survival mode 365-24-7
Drugs and alcohol help you get through life
Breakdowns in your close relationships owing to the chef lifestyle and culture
Life and work being constantly hard – you’re not really in the flow of things
It’s probably not often that you get to stop and reflect, but have you ever envisioned a different reality: a richer, more rewarding life and work? This is what Love Letters to Chefs is all about: holding that vision for chefs and helping them fulfill it.
The title here does not imply that chefs are currently asleep. Instead, what is offered is an opportunity for chefs to awaken to the truth that, as Gandhi said, you have to the the change that you want to see in the world.
The journey consists of six steps:
Separate the grain from the chaff – see the real truth about your life, your work and your vision
Take stock – be grounded in what you really have to offer the world
Write your own recipe – what’s the vision for your life?
Nourish yourself first – build self-awareness
Alchemy – being in flow in life and in work
Look beyond the plate – systems thinking for a broader perspective
This is an invitation to join Love Letters to Chefs on a rich, rewarding journey.