I was watching the new series of Masterchef last night and was seriously impressed by the enthusiasm and commitment of the participants. Some of them very clearly knew how to shake a pan, others perhaps needed a bit more practice. I was left wondering how many of them had decided to cook something safe, well within their capabilities, and how many had decided to take risks with new and challenging recipes in the hope of winning this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Sometimes we do only get one opportunity and you might find it instructive to have a think about how you react in those situations. Do you take the safe but sure approach – which unless you are world class probably puts you in a pack with many others – or do you give it your all in the hope of creating something new and unexpected?
Heston Blumenthal did not become one of the best chefs in the world by cooking conventional French cuisine better than anyone else, he needed to find his own style and even his own techniques.
People who are different, or do things differently, are the ones that get noticed, so what do you do or are you going to do to make yourself noticeable and push the boat out?
I love reading your blog Geoff and can really relate to this one. I’d say at the minute I’m definitely in a place of giving it my all in the hope of creating something new and unexpected. I’m giving my all to the drama group I’ve recently joined, and just last night was asked to play the same character for a different drama group as a couple of people have dropped out; I have a feeling of being head hunted which feels pretty bloody good I can tell you, and more than anything it tells me I’d doing something right; something good 🙂
And I did indeed challenge myself this morning. I went along to the Al-Hikmah Centre in Batley for a morning of “Negotiating – Getting your point across” training for women, as part of a Leadership course. It was lovely to be a part of a group, what with not being in work for the past couple of weeks due to the redundancy, and I even did some networking and may have some group facilitation work coming my way as a result.
I guess it’s like anything in life… what you give out, you get back, so giving my all and daring to expect that something new and unexpected will come of it, well it’s the only way forward in my book!
Hi Geoff
Would agree that in these austere times when spending is down, too many people chasing the same jobs, when we probably all have the same qualifications/ experience… you have to find ways of diffrentiating yourselves from the rest.