SUCCESS LESSONS FROM FOOD

Good day. This blog is a little off the wall, but if you stick with me I will make a point.

In the last chapter of my book Road Map to Life: A real world lesson I have a section dedicated to some basic healthy practices when it comes to food and eating. Things like taking small bites, chewing the food very well to allow the digestive process to begin to work in your mouth, not eating food when it is too hot or too cold so the lining of your stomach is not irritated, etc.  Well having eaten all over the world due to the work that I do, I have noticed Westerners and in North America in particular, we love huge portions. We love our burgers stacked high. We love humongous sandwiches, super-sized fries and we want it fast.  It seems like even when we are at home we are in a rush to finish the food on our plate and go on to the next thing. While I was eating my dinner at Red Robbins, I  felt a bit awkward because my chicken sandwich was so big that I really could not fit it in my mouth without looking like an alligator trying to devour a wildebeest.  I actually had to use a knife and fork. Then it occurred to me that in Europe, the meals are spread out over a longer time range so your dinner may take  2 to 3 hours, and the food is brought to you in very small portions.  That is not just in restaurants, many families start with wine and cheese, then a small salad, then the main course, some desert, and of course coffee or espresso. It is a culture of savoring meal time in many European countries.  You may have 4 or 5 courses of food but the portions are very small and spread out so you can take manageable bites, and have the time to savor and enjoy the food between courses.

What does all this have to do with success? Well goals and steps in achieving and succeeding in your goals are the same way.  The healthy way of achieving success is by taking small steps towards your goals. Not taking unnecessary and undue risks and not sand bagging and underestimating your potential either. You don’t want humongous steps towards goals because they  become overwhelming and demotivate you if you fail which usually happens when you, pardon the pun, bite more than you can chew.  You want to set yourself up for success by taking small steps. Small consistent and persistent steps towards succeeding in those goals. The analogy of hot or cold comes in for example, by not taking those “hot” investment tips on extremely risky issues in the stock market and then wondering why things went awry. You need to do your due diligence and homework and then take conservative risks that have a good return on investment. That goes for any step towards your goals and not just for investing. Succeeding in your goals is taking successful steps towards your goal. If you make every step successful, then you cannot help but succeed.  At the same time you don’t want to take the approach to your goals, like having cold food. You don’t want to make things too easy for yourself because that is not stretching your comfort zone and that is not building your confidence.

I hope this makes sense to you and I hope this is a different way of helping you set goals and take small steps towards achieving them. Remember no matter what, “ the journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step”,  and you have to keep on taking steps after steps to reach that destination. As always feel free to comment and share this with anyone that may benefit from it and to your success till next week.