I’ve written a lot about ambition and how it shaped my life. In hindsight, I think I was ambitious out of spite. I wasn’t really expected to succeed.
I reigned back ambition about 12 years ago. Instead of rushing towards advancement, I waited. I learned. I acquired a variety of experience and new skills. I still have a lot to learn.
One of the things I like about my current profession as a Cook is that it’s not something that can be faked. The immediacy of it, the physicality of it, and the quality are all very apparent. You can either do it, or you can’t.
And, as I’ve moved up in the cooking world, from Dishwasher to Prep Cook, to Line Cook to Sous Chef to Chef, I found that many of my other skills are valid in this field. Running a kitchen takes organization, time management, planning, and a lot of patience.
Sometimes, life just makes sense. And usually, when that happens it’s because I didn’t force things to happen. Instead I stepped into a river and let it carry me along to this place. It’s a metaphor as well as a truth.
I spent a lot of time and energy in my life trying to make things happen. But it took this long for me to learn to let things happen. There’s been effort, and intention, but I finally became a bit of a fatalist, and I can’t complain about the outcome. I don’t know that my current situation was inevitable, but I certainly allowed it to happen.
Beyond Clarity 