Personal Development Strategy: Whatcha Got Cookin'?

I don't know about you, but I have personally known several people in my life who have looked into becoming a chef at one point or another. The other day I was sent a link to chic.edu, and it got me thinking about the perceived value of someone who has earned the title "chef," and how those thoughts could be applied to personal development.

It struck me that if there is one thing that always comes to mind when one hears the word "chef," it is that the individual is an absolute expert in their field.

If you aren't an expert in the culinary field, then you aren't a chef. You might be a cook, or a connoisseur, but you aren't a chef.

As a general rule in society, people who are deemed "experts" in their field are usually compensated accordingly via hefty paychecks, positions of power, fringe benefits, etc. So, if you want to become an expert in your field, you can expect to reap the rewards. However, even if you aren't chasing the perks, a quick review of what makes a chef so successful can be applied to any area of your life that you want to improve!

A chef knows exactly what he or she is going to make – You don't set out to cook an entree at a 5-star restaurant without knowing exactly what you are going to prepare. There is no doubt, no second-guessing, and no going back. Once you are committed to making a certain meal, that is exactly what you are going to make.

The average person on a quest for personal development could learn a lot from that example! One of the biggest reasons why people do not attain their goals is because they never got 100% clear on what they wanted to accomplish in the first place. 

Oh sure, they had some vague idea about losing weight, making more money, or having great relationships, but they never sat down and said I am going to do this, and only this!

Their mental focus as well as the physical tasks associated with achieving success ended up scattered to all four points of the compass, rather than being laser-targeted on exactly one goal.

A chef will always follow the plan– When you are in the business of living up to your reputation of putting together culinary masterpieces that command respect as much as they satisfy hunger, you don't just throw a bunch of stuff into a pan and see what happens.

There is a very specific system that you follow, and you do not significantly deviate from it. Yes, you might give yourself some flexibility to try different variations on a theme, and you might even roll with the punches in order to save the day if the dish isn't turning out quite right. 

However, Cordon Bleu is Cordon Bleu, and there are only so many ways to make it that will allow it to still be called Cordon Bleu! You can follow this same strategy in your own life. 

Once you have decided on a particular course of action to get you to your goal, follow your plan! Like the example of the chef, you should be flexible and you should allow yourself to react favorably to unexpected conditions, but the basic plan should not change significantly until you have either:

• Achieved success, or
• Proven the ineffectiveness of your plan

In either case, you won't know if your recipe (your plan) is worthwhile unless you consistently follow through on your efforts, rather than jumping ship the first time things aren't going the way that you thought they would.

Chefs measure their success – Do you think that a master chef puts together a bunch of recipes that he/she thinks are great, but then never elicits feedback from other people? Hardly.

For every mouth-watering delicacy that a chef has prepared and put in front of you, that same recipe was probably modified or even completely rewritten many times before the chef finally decided that a masterpiece had been created.

You can fine-tune your own plan of action in life by using the same method used by a chef, and that is to get feedback. Are your efforts eliciting the response (the results) that you had hoped for?

The way that you get feedback will depend on what goal you are trying to accomplish, but it will always including making note of the positive or negative reactions that you get as you move toward that goal.

One thing of note, however, is that – just like our master chef – it is up to you whether or not you listen to the feedback that you receive. Just because someone else says that your strategies are working or not working does not mean that person is right. You are the only person who can make the final decision about what to do or not do as you continue on your path to personal development success. 

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