Wednesday's Class

About serving others:

A memorable part of today’s class was when Chef told a story of helping a woman with a flat tire in Miami. He was devastated after losing everything — businesses, boats, planes — to a hurricane. He had no option but to move away from his friends and the life he’d made in the Bahamas. After relocating to Miami, he was forced to do some soul searching and figure out what his next steps would be. He was stuck in a funk.

Driving down the road he sees a woman stranded on the side of the highway with a flat tire, struggling to fix it and having no clue what she is doing. He stops to help and slightly freaks the woman out. He changes the tire and he tries to pay him for his gesture; but he doesn’t want money. He realizes that this is the best he’s felt in a year since he lost it all. In helping someone else, he found a way out of himself and his own depression. His act of service helped him more than it did the woman whose tire he’d changed.

Serving people benefits others, and it’s good for me. Chef humbly admitted that he’s embarrassed that it took him so long to figure this out. It made me think of all the times I have thought of only myself way too long, and gotten into a self-focus loop. Conversely, I am very aware of how much joy, personal satisfaction and pride I get from serving someone a meal—especially if I know that it’s delicious, artfully prepared and every detail is full of care. It’s the best feeling in the world!

About limits:

We also had a good conversation about limits in terms of attitude and respect.

Negative Limits = Setting limits for absolutely no violence, temper tantrums, cursing, improper tone

Neutral = Picking your battles!

Move toward positive encounters = Acting positively. Make it right and tell someone. Apologize if necessary. Fake it if you gotta — just do what you learned and it’ll kick in eventually.

I’m thinking about:

What other limits do I need to set for myself, in addition to those having to do with attitude and respect? Safety/sanitation issues, integrity, business partnership decisions, family/work balance … these are things that need to be thoughtfully considered as I work toward starting my own business.