For Such A Time As This

“It’s impossible,” said pride. “It’s risky,” said experience. “It’s pointless,” said reason. “Give it a try,” said the heart. – Unknown

This past week has been filled with lots of different activities. I had conversations with people about my life, journey and work. I connected with people I didn’t know existed a few months ago. I’m meeting people for lunches and visiting others; this is all on the back of my recent adventures in the MasterChefUK kitchen.

This wasn’t something that I planned to do and being in a whirlwind is the only way I can describe the few weeks leading up to me going on the show. As Eddie, the 2022 winner said, “he felt like his whole life had been leading up to being in the MasterChef kitchen and finally lifting that trophy made it worthwhile.”

I can relate to how Eddie felt given his passion for food and what he said because that’s exactly how I felt about being in the MasterChefUK kitchen.

Although I never actually saw myself taking my food to the MasterChef kitchen, I am always willing to try and I dare to dream every time. I am not afraid of new experiences, apart from karaoke which is still on my bucket list.

I am willing to pay the price it takes to get anything that matters done and by price I mean only ethical things, hard work, determination and sheer grit.

I will make the sacrifices required to complete my personal or professional goals. I would be happy to make financial sacrifices to pay for the things that will advance my goals.

It’s all down to the choices that we are willing to make for the things that we want and the peace of mind that we need. It’s about our thoughts on short term versus long term pains, goals and desires.

When I look over my life, I must give credit to my upbringing for the values that I cherish and live by today. I was raised not to be afraid of hard work or expect things to be handed to me on a plate. I was told I had to be willing to pay the price for the life that I wanted and no one has two brains so I really have no excuses to not be able to make something of my life.

Because of this, I had two to three jobs as a student and made more money working than my allowance which allowed me to live the life that I wanted as a student. The jobs couldn’t be more different as two of them were in management consulting and training and the third was acting in a weekly TV drama. Again I would give any opportunity a go before deciding whether or not it was for me.

Growing up, I was surrounded by books and more books. I read books on philosophy, religion, ethics, science, technology and fables. My father told us stories every night quite often making them up on the go and as I got older, I began to catch him out as I could remember all previous versions of the same story. Through this, I learnt about story telling and he made me feel like an author when he had a story I wrote as a seven or eight year old printed and bound professionally.

More importantly, he allowed us to have debates with him and other adults on issues including politics, art, government, finance and religion. In a culture and at a time when children were meant to be seen and not heart, my father bucked the trend by allowing us to be counter-cultural in our upbringing.

Today this is seen through me having an opinion about most things and being able to comprehend lots of information and draw conclusions easily and quickly which has been a blessing in my career as Project Manager.

From my father, I learnt about not giving up on your dreams as he completed his Bachelor degree after my brother and I were born. He was determined to accomplish his goals and we saw what it took to make it happen.

People always ask me, ‘what was it like in the MasterChef kitchen?’ And I say to them, ‘it is the hardest and most stressful thing I had ever done and it was also the must daunting, challenging and fun thing I had ever done’.

I felt alive in the most surreal way with my heart pumping, feeling the need to have a wee every few minutes before going into the kitchen for a cook or for the results.

I am the sort of person who refuses to pay good or even bad money to go on a rollercoaster with the risk of my food coming out of every possible hole in my body. People talk about the thrill of the rides but I see their fears and the screaming; I see the pictures of facial expressions that are weird and ridiculous at best. Of course I also see the fun and lively conversations when they get off the rides.

The MasterChef kitchen gave me the same and perhaps even more excitement and thrill whilst I was doing something that I actually love and enjoy. My blood pumped alright and many times I felt like everything inside of me needed to come out but I left the kitchen everyday full of joy, hope, pride, and a determination to do better during my next cook.

It was a place for continuous improvement, growth and learning which is definitely my passion. My passion has always been to inspire, and continuously improve myself and help others to do so and this cuts across both my personal and professional lives.

My biggest lessons are that we are more capable than we think and we can dig deeper even after we thought we were at our limits. So even when you think something is impossible, hard, risky or perhaps even pointless, listen to your heart and give it a go if it tells you to.

Thanks for reading and sharing my post. See you next week.