A lot of Sou and no ffle

One of my passions is cooking and I like to attempt tricky recipes just for the fun of it. I still remember making my first soufflé over ten years ago and wondering if it would rise or fall.

Recently I was watching ‘Masterchef – the professionals’ and contestants in the skills test were asked to create a soufflé which they all did with varying degrees of success.

One of the contestants went through the right steps and appeared to have got his ingredients correctly measured out, yet his soufflé did not rise as expected despite his best efforts. When the judges reviewed his soufflé, Monica Galetti uttered the phrase, “you had a lot of Sou and no ffle”.

Her comment soon became a rib tickling catchphrase between my sister and I.

After three days of laughing at this comment, the penny finally dropped. I realised there was a lesson – about actions not translating to desired results or expectations. I am sure we have all had some ‘sou and no ffle’ moments.

These quickly become defining moments when some life impacting choices come up.

• Do you allow yourself to be defeated, never to make another soufflé or do you get up and make another one even if you’re the only that’s going to eat it?
• Do you allow yourself to be defined by this mistake or failure or do you shake it off, learn from it and move on?
• Do you allow yourself to be haunted by this failure or shortfall adding to others that you have filed in your ‘failure archive’?

You know what I mean, that archive in your mind where you store all the things that haven’t worked in the past. We all have them but it’s what we do with them that matters.

We all need to remember that our pasts don’t have to define our future or hold us back.

So what do I do when I don’t get my desired results and when my archives creep back up? I take a critical look at my actions, process and state of mind. I look for the things I overlooked, changes I need to make and the lessons I need to learn. Once I recognise them, I make a choice to move on and release myself from any self condemnation.

To deal with my archives, I welcome a refresh of the learning without focusing too much on the mistake or the negative emotions that came with it at the time. The only thing that matters is, ‘what did I learn and what do I need to do differently going forward?’.

By seeing the opportunity to learn, I take the power back from my past failings and I enrich my future with the insight and wisdom.

So what about you?

It’s time to do a critical assessment of how you react to past failures. What do you do with your archives? Do you beat yourself up or do you dare to smash the archives taking only what’s good out of it. Do you let them hold you back or do you get back on the horse after you’ve been thrown off it?

Remember, the choice is always yours.

As we venture into new territories and follow our passions, there will, no doubt, be some mistakes, failures, shortfalls and unmet expectations. And we have to be ready to deal with them.

This requires us being in the right mindset and knowing that mistakes, failures and unmet expectations don’t define us and shouldn’t stop us from moving forward or trying again.

So ahead of those times when we will do the right things and not get the desired results, make a commitment today never to give up. It’s in persistence that we finally gain the victory.

Mistakes and past failures are gifts for our advancement and enrichment. They can make us stronger and better people but only if we allow them to do that.

Have another thought about your future and make it a good and positive one. Smash any archives holding you back and press ahead with your goals.

Thank you for reading my post. Please share with others.

See you all next week.