127 - Work To Live vs. Live to Work

Today, we are going to be talking about the concept of work to live or live to work. Again, my name is Nick Brown, and I'm the founder of cooking physics. And my mission is to help you use chefs to build your passion, your profession, and your personal development through these weekly courses. As I as I help you become the best chef become an inspirational chef. So today, we're talking about the concept of live to work, or do you work to live? Now, this is a big question, because a lot of people talk heavily about this concept called work life balance. And in this industry, with the culinary industry, in restaurants in hospitality, that balance is almost non existent, we cannot get a full balance, we cannot get the eight hours of work, your eight hours at home and your eight hours of sleep, that just doesn't happen. Okay, we are in the business of serving other people. We are in the business of helping other people have experiences in their lives and inspire them to bigger and grander things. Okay. And so the concept of how much should I work? It's really going to be a personal question for you. Because a lot of us are, are single, or we're just starting out. And we have all the time in the world. And we are focused and we are passionate about our jobs, about our profession. And so with that, our first when we first started out, I would have to say that we live to work, okay. And that's where we're at, we're in it, we want to be working, we want to work hard, we want to advance as quickly as possible. We want to live to work we live so that we can work because it's so enjoyable. We're always learning, we're always growing. And it's a lot of fun. We're in great locations, we're in great restaurants, we work with amazing people. And so we just love coming to work because of all of the stuff we get to do. But at the same time, there are many of us who love cooking, love working love having the environment but of of work. And being in the restaurant, we love the rush, we love the grind, and all that kind of stuff. But at the same time we work so that we can get paid and we can live. Okay, so it's a really big question of like, which one are you going to be? Are you on the camp of live to work? And you just love getting in it? Are you in the camp of you work to live, and you love working, but at the same time you love going out and there's a lot of other things that you enjoy doing outside of the kitchen. So what are we going to talk about? How are we going to talk about this? Is there a right way? I don't think so. It really depends on where you're at in your life, and where your priorities lie. So let's first talk about your priorities. And a lot of other of my week, a lot of my other weekly teachings, I have been talking about your priority, your vision, where you want to go, what do you want to do? What is that vision that you want to have? Do you want to have your own restaurant? Do you have a family? Do you want to be spending time home with the family? Are you is your vision to retire is your vision to own a restaurant for the rest of your life? And have you know or be a celebrity chef or whatnot? Like what is that vision? What is your priority? And once you figure out your priority, once you figure out which one it is you want, then you can start to begin to answer this question. Do you work to live or do you live to work? Okay. So do you have a family? Do you have outside things that are outside of your work? Me personally, when I was first starting out, I was always in the camp of work to live. Now, one of the things that I talked with my chef about one of the beginning shifts that I had was that I understand that I need to work to live. And I understand that my family is the most important part. But in order for me to be able to take care of my family, I need to work, I need to be available at the times that were busy, I need to work those times I need to work those long hours. I understand that. Okay. And knowing that, it helps me progress a lot faster than other people who would just just kind of come in and just they just wanted a paycheck. Okay. And understanding that priority. Now as my, as I've gotten older, as I've progressed in my life, that, that outside life is becoming a little bit more and more important, and I enjoy working. Okay, don't get me wrong, I love working. But at the same time, I really enjoy being outside, I really enjoy being with my family. And so that's what's kind of blossomed into what this is. I want to help other people to enjoy their lives and be happy and be successful, and really have everything that they want. Once they figure out what it is this your priority. So do you want to work to live? Or do you want to live to work? Again? So the most important thing is that, figuring out your priority, then start looking at your values. What are your values? For me, my values, our family, my values are my religion. It's honesty. I love organization. I love effective efficiency. And I just I love service. Okay, those are some of my core values. And they show in my daily activities and the things that I do. I love music, and I love creation, okay, everything that deals with creation. That's why I love the culinary arts, you're always creating, you're always doing, you know, specials, you're experimenting, you're creating new things. Okay? And so once you get figured out there's priorities, then you start to make those goals. What is the goal that you have? For the end? What is your vision? What is your goal? Okay, now you bring it back, what can you be working on, say, for this year? Okay. You bring it even closer? What can you work on for the next six months? The next three months? The next month? What are those individual goals, the closer that it gets? The more definite, the more finite, the more absolute. Those goals should become? The 10 years, I want to own my own restaurant, okay. You know, in one year, okay, I'm, I'm a cook in one year, I want to learn everything that I need to know to become a sous chef. Okay, great. And you pull it back? What do you need to be learning to be a sous chef in the next six months, I'm going to learn management skills. I'm going to read some books, I'm going to take a course I'm going to get a coach, I don't know what whatever it's going to take. But in the next six months, I'm going to learn those management skills, those leadership skills that will help me become a sous chef. Okay, what's the next three months, the next three months? You know, and you just kind of boil it down to where it becomes. This week, I'm going to read a book. Okay, or this week, I'm going to put this thing that I learned into action. I'm going to practice this I'm going to do this thing. Okay? So getting those goals event identifying your values, setting those goals and going after it keep that vision in mind and understand that which camp you're in. Are you in the lift to work if you're in the lift to work, dude, just go get it man spend every waking hour learning growing developing. So you know really getting in there. You know, if you want had worked two jobs or something like that, so you've got, you know, your multiple places that you can, you can learn from just understand that with that live to work, you need to have that harmony. Okay, so I've talked a lot about this harmony. The first rule of my coaching and the first rule of the chef rules that I have is to taste everything. What does that mean when it comes to this? Tasting everything is that guideline is that That Guiding Light into what you need of being present in the moment. Okay? Sit there and be like, This is what I want to do. When you accomplish it, sit there and taste it. Figure out what it is that you accomplished. Be grateful for it, be happy for it, celebrate it, okay? And really sit with it and be like I did that. I had a, I had a vision, I had a goal, I hit it. It was awesome. I managed to make it if you don't hit that goal, but you're still moving forward, sit with that. What was it that made you? What was it that caused you to not hit your goal? What can you do to overcome that challenge the next time it comes. But sit with it. Realize that you worked for that goal? You may not have hit it, but you worked for that goal? Did you set those standards that you were going to do every single day? If the answer is yes, and you didn't hit the goal, be excited that you hit the standards every single day. And that your goal was just a little bit too far. Let's try it again next week. Okay, sit there, feel it, taste it. If your goal is that you live to work, spend your time living in the moment, enjoying the time that you have when you're not working. Don't think about work, don't worry about the work. Take the time and enjoy the time that you've got here. When you're at work, do the same thing. Enjoy it, focus on it, work on it, be present. Okay. The next thing I want to talk about is my second rule. And this rule is focus on your mason plus. So again, what is your mason plus Mason plus is getting everything in its way in its place, right? Making sure that everything is set. Depending on which camp you are, is depending on what your priorities are going to lie, and the amount of time that you're going to dedicate to each one. If your priority is you live to work, your priorities are going to put work much higher. And you can focus on your work for 10 1214 hours. And each day. If you're if your goal is work to live, you may end up working those 10 1214 hours. But make sure that you prioritize the time that you have off. You get everything into his into his place that you are scheduling your time off, that you are scheduling your time, doing the things that you love outside of work, that you are making sure that when you're not working, that you're actively working for something else. Okay? That could be I'm actively working on just straight up enjoying life, I'm going to go to the mountains, I'm going to go for a bike ride, I'm gonna go kayaking, I'm gonna go do something and go out with my friends. It doesn't really matter. But scheduling that and setting apart that time and saying, This is what I'm going to do. Set that priority. Put that organization into your life with both camps, so that you can accomplish the goals that you have set for you. Okay. The next rule that I have, okay. Is the rule of three. Okay, the rule of three is all about the organization all about the scheduling. And what are you doing? What are your plans? Okay, we've already kind of talked about this in the last time, you know, leading up to this, what are your goals? What is your mission? What is your three goals that you have? Now, my goal is to help you to focus on your passion, your profession, and your personal development. So what is that? That's part of that rule of three? Make sure that regardless of which camp you're in, that you understand what is your goal, your professional goal, your professional goal is all about what it is that is going to help you make more money. What are you doing to advance your skills? What are you doing to advance your knowledge to be able to make more money? You know, your personal development? What are you doing to be able to be a better person for others around you? Are you building your relationships? Are you learning those interpersonal skills? Are you building those core friendships? Are you paying attention to your family, to your spouse, your girlfriend, your partner, your whatever it is, what are you doing? thing in that personal development? Okay? What it is, is it going to make you a better person and to help you be a better person for other people? And then the third one is your passion. What do you like to do that has nothing to do with work with making money, or with somebody else's expectations? What is it, okay? And make sure that you set a goal in each one of those areas, if you manage to focus on each one of those areas, some days, it's going to be more this some hours, it's going to be more that, you know, just kind of ebb and flow as you're going throughout your week, throughout your month. But make sure that you're focusing on all three of those areas of your life. And that will help you maintain that harmony that I've been talking about. It'll help you be more successful in your career. Because you're not neglecting yourself. You're not neglecting your your work your profession, your money, you're not neglecting those other peoples that are around you, your companions, your co workers, yours, your significant other, your girlfriend, boyfriend, your spouse, whatever it is, okay? Your best friend or anything like that. If you're focusing on all three of those areas, your life will feel more excited, more fulfilled, you'll be able to enjoy your life. Okay. Rule number four talks about maintain that clean and organized area. When you're working, when you're deciding which one you're going to be, are you going to work to live? Are you going to live to work? What are you doing in your day to day aspects that is helping you achieve that goal? Okay? Are you practicing yourself care? Are you taking care of yourself? Because that's what this is about. Okay, your priorities, your goals, your vision, you need to be able to take care of yourself. Because if you're not taking care of yourself, you won't be able to accomplish your goals. You'll be too burnt out, you'll be exhausted, you'll be angry, pissed off, okay. So take care of yourself, make sure that you are taking that time to clean, keep that clean and organized area. Also, make sure that your relationships are the same way. Take the time to repair broken relationships, take the time to fix relationships that are starting to get a little rocky with your friends, your co workers, your boss, okay. The next part is all about delegate and seek or support, surround yourself with that support. Regardless of which camp you're in, you're going to need help, you're going to need that support. There is not a single chef who can function on a consistent basis, all by himself. I don't care who you are. Or you may say oh, the private chef. Now, he's got to have his system around him. It'll be the purveyors, it'll be the people that have that offering the food, it will be his friends. They've given the support. It'll be the other people around him that allow him to accomplish the goals that he has in front of him. Surround yourself with support, gain those friendships. Take some time and develop yourself. Surround yourself with support by coaches, by mentors, by friends, those core friends that are there to support you, your family that is there to help you in your and to help you maintain those dreams. Okay, the last thing I want to talk about is all about serving with intention. Now, this one's a big one. Because when you're thinking about this, our lives are all about service. When we go to work, it's all about service. We offer other people the best of ourselves, and we give it to them, we offer the best of ourselves to those that are that are our employers, okay? We offer the best of ourselves, to our friends to our families. And if we maintain that if we keep that and keep that focus, it can become a little bit overwhelming. See, when I talk about serve with attention, I'm not talking about just giving everything away, figuring out what your priorities are, again, where do your priorities lie? And make sure that your service matches those priorities that your service matches those values. We have great opportunities to serve other people all the time. But if we burn ourselves out in giving to other people, whether it be our time to our job, or, or the money that we've got, we can burn ourselves out. And then if that happens, we're not able to help other people. We become jaded, we become angry, we can become bitter, and we become burned out. Serving with intention also deals with being in the moment, okay? The reckless service mindset can really derail yourself, okay? If you're just out there, and just giving, giving, giving, and just giving the best of yourself every single time, if you're in that live to work environment, this can be very hard to overcome that absolute dedication to your job, that added absolute dedication to your passion can lead to a reckless service. And you burn yourself out. Because you're constantly you're not enough, everything that you're doing is not quite enough, you can always give more, and you're pushing yourself, you are part of those high performers. But if we don't pull back, if we don't put a cap on it, we don't say, I'm only going to work this many hours. Or this is my this is my definition of success. You know, once I hit this point, once I get to this point, I am fulfilled, I am happy, I'm excited, I can quit, you're not going to quit. Because, you know, you're really trying to become the best that you can be. But make sure you have that limit and be like I'm there. And then push past that. If you don't get past it, pull back be like, Did I hit what I wanted to do? I had my goal. And then get back into it another day. Okay. Always learn to say no to other people, because for every single time that you say, yes, there are 100 Other things that you could be doing at that time that you're not. So get those priorities clear. Get those values clear, understand what it is that you're trying to go for, understand your goal, understand that mission, understand that vision, and be able to say, if this doesn't completely align with my vision, it is a heck no, absolutely no, I'm not going to do it. It would be amazing. Think of it this way. When you're in a restaurant, people are always offering you suggestions. Oh, I've got this really good recipe. And we put you should put this on the right menu. Oh, this is a killer thing, you should put this on the menu, or guests that are there. It's like I really enjoyed this. But I really would like it if you did this, or I really like if you did that. If you said yes to every single thing, your restaurant, the menu on your restaurant will become so diluted that nobody would know what you have to offer. Your menu would become so large that you would be losing product because nobody would order it. You would have to order so much more product. And so much we're gonna go to waste because you don't have enough to be able to, you've got just too much going on. The same thing can happen with your service. If you say yes to every single thing, your life, your menu becomes way too big. And you will begin to fail in every single aspect. Not because you're not capable of doing it. But because you're spread yourself way too thin. So take care of yourself. Figure out what your goal is figure out your priorities. Are you part of the live to work? Are you part of the work to live, figure out those priorities, stick to those priorities. Learn to say no, on the things that don't lead you to your goals to your future vision that you want before you. So I really thank you so very much for coming and listening to what I have to say I hope that you reached a little bit of something out of this. If you would like to learn more. I am doing coaching. I'm doing a group coaching that is happening every single week. It's going to start in a couple of months. I'm putting it out there right now. And I'm going to start doing this coaching about my six rules. And it'll be an eight week program. The first two weeks is setting that priority. Setting that mindset like this is what I want. And then for the next six weeks, every single week we're going to talk about one of these rules that I just talked about here. And we're gonna go dive deep into one aspect of this Now the great thing is, is this group coaching is all about having the group together. And it's more of a subscription style because a membership style because I know our lives are busy, and things are going on all the time. So what we're going to be doing is every single week, we'll get on and we'll have this session, I will record it. And then it'll be put into the, into the feed into the environment, into your community. So you can go back and listen to the recording, you can see what we talked about each week, as well as that, as the more people that we get into this group coaching, the more community that we're going to build, we're going to be able to have chefs that are like minded, that are focused on that passion, professional and personal development, who really want to become inspirational leaders in their field, in the culinary field, and really begin to start working together, start building that network, start building your friendships. So that you have that support network around you. It's built in that support network is all built in in there, surround yourself with support, and then serve with intention, getting in there, getting into that community and serving other people, helping other people with their problems. That's what this is all going to be about. We'll be talking about your own personal development, your own learning and growing, having the support and giving your knowledge to other people. So thank you so very much. If you'd like to know more, click on the link below. And we'll put it in the in the comments below. But it's cooking physics.com/coaching. So please, I'd love to have you, I'm really excited to what's going on. And the more we get in there, the better it's going to be. So thank you so very much. And I'll see you next week, where we're going to be talking about the difference between the rush and the grind. And how the rush is the thing that's going to drive you forward. Whereas the grind is going to burn you out. And how to be able to take what would be the grind and turn it into the rush that helps you propel you forward and build that momentum so you can become the best that you can be. Thank you so very much. I will see you next week. Thursday, one o'clock mountain time. Take