PSA: What's your Passion?

My older sister Therese is a chef by trade. From a very early age, she had an interest in cooking. I remember when we were kids, we’d come home from school and she would come up with some unique (and pretty good) after-school snacks. When she was in HS, she even hosted a few dinner parties where she’d cook for her friends. In recent years, I ran into one of her former classmates who was telling me about how she would bring fresh baked cookies to school. All of this shaped her decision to major in Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management in College. There’s no doubt that she is great at what she does; But bigger than that, she has a level of reverence for her field.

Through Therese’s love of cooking, she discovered a love for studying the history of culinary arts. In a brief interview she did with WPIX 11 News, she’s quoted as stating, “In American gastronomy, it’s the truth that the foundations of American gastronomy start with black hands.” In 2008, she started her own website,  centered around and aptly named blackculinaryhistory.com.  What started as a discussion among a small group of fellow chefs grew into a network of thousands. The intent was to open a dialogue about navigating her career as a black chef and it led to a career shift. She still works full-time in a hotel restaurant, but she now travels around the country for different conferences and speaking engagements. She’s even writing her own book!!!

Here she is in Action. She was cooking for an event at the James Beard House.

It’s been a pleasure watching her discover this passion and witnessing her nourish it. I saw her plant the seedling and we’ve watched it blossom into a beautiful tree. I would always listen in adoration as she would speak so passionately about her work and what was to come next. While I was so proud of her, I was actually feeling sorry for myself because my life lacked that sort of excitement. It took a while for me to recognize that this was lacking for me because of the way my life is structured. I work full-time but I’m also a part-time student, so my time was often occupied by my job or schoolwork.

Sure, I have plenty of different interests and I’ve even explored some of them. An example of this would be my attempt at selling wine club memberships. I’ve always had an interest in mixology; I even took a bartending class years ago. I enjoy wine and I know a lot of people that do as well. This seemed like a great opportunity to help people learn more about wine while earning a few extra dollars in the process. The obstacle here is that I’m not much of a salesperson. I wasn’t comfortable approaching people about the business and when I did, I wasn’t great with the follow-up. While I had a passion for wine and I really enjoyed sharing all that I was learning about it, my approach alienated a lot of people. This was certainly not my intention. The lesson here? Life is about finding your strengths and working within them. Know your capabilities and limitations. Be willing to step outside of your comfort zone and try learning new things. In doing so, you may discover skills and competencies that you never knew you had. Alternatively, you may find that certain things are just not for you. Either way, taking the risk will teach you something about yourself, bringing you one step closer to what is ultimately meant for you.

I’m in the process of completing my first master’s degree. One of the last courses I took was Strategic Management, which examines how organizations choose to position themselves. Cursory steps towards making this determination include establishing the organization’s Vision, Mission, and Values. I realized that the same idea could actually be applied to personal life. Think of your vision as a long-term goal that you establish for yourself. What are your aspirations? Have you considered where you want to be in the next 5, 10, or 20 years? This is something to be explored. You may even choose to write a Personal Vision Statement. Your Mission should describe what you plan to do to bring your vision to life. If my vision was to be a successful heart surgeon in the next 20 years, my mission would include completing medical school and getting into a great residency program.  Your values speak more to your character and what your ethics dictate. What will keep you on track to achieve your goals? If integrity is one of my values, I would work hard and study to get through medical school as opposed to cheating my way through it.

Doing some self-assessment, I decided to make a mental list of how I spend my time and evaluate what I do that I enjoy the most. This helped me to articulate that my passion is helping others achieve their goals and experience growth. The concept of a Personal Vision and Mission helped me establish my own strategy. My vision involves me fulfilling my purpose of helping as many people as I can, however I can. I hope to find some unique and unconventional ways of doing so. Based on this, my mission includes becoming certified as a coach. The values that will guide my journey are integrity, transparency, and credibility in effort to establish trust.

Discovering your purpose/passion is not an overnight process; it’s also not an exact science.  It may not happen for you the way it did for Therese or myself and that’s perfectly OK. It doesn’t matter how you get there as long as you keep moving. Yogi Berra is quoted as stating, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re liable to end up someplace else.” One might take this to mean that a person lacks a sense of direction but where you end up could also be exactly where you need to be.