I was at work today, making phone calls and cupcakes, planning new projects and finalizing details on old ones. I was checking my emails and marvelling at all the emails I get from people selling business coaching or software for websites or just selling selling. I am not sure how I got on so many email lists but that is just the way it goes these days. So much new technology and plenty of people to tell you what you need and how to buy it from them. And there is a lot of talking. Talk. Talk. Talk. This use to bother me because I get more emails from these people than I do from people I actually know and want to hear from.
But today it was not bothering me. I actually have real tangible work to do and I had forgotten how good it feels to be productive – not just busy but productive. It was always what I enjoyed about baking – you take raw ingredients and with a little physical work, you have a product that you can touch and see (you can’t eat it or it won’t sell) and then you turn this physical thing into money – it is a great feeling.
On the weekend, I did my first online webinar demonstrating making feta cheese and kombucha to those who attended the fermentation workshop. To say this was pushing me out of my comfort zone is an understatement. I had to master the technology I was using (with mixed results) and cook online live. This is the new way things are done and I realize how important it is to be current and learn new things. It is good for my brain and my health and keeps me relevant. Yet all Sunday I kept thinking: “I am making freaking cheese!” Again, it is tangible. I can see it and touch and in this case, eat it.
As a holistic nutritionist, trying to earn a living, you learn to live with the feeling that you could be doing more, that someone is having opportunities that you do not have and feeling like you are missing out. You end up on a ton of email lists, looking for the little nuggets of information from all the business experts and occasionally coughing up the dough to take a course or two. You feel there is a whole world happening out there and you are not part of it. Part of this is due to the nature of the profession and part of this is due to the people in it. Sometimes it feels like a cult, and not one I agreed to join. There is also a lot of talk but not a lot of action. But that does not happen in the food business and while it is good to be pushed and to strive, there is also a lot to be said for doing things that give you peace and a sense of satisfaction and that is what food production has always done for me.
As a food professional, I had forgotten how good it feels to produce. And I am not talking about physically baking or cooking all day, which I do not really do unless it is absolutely necessary or I am doing testing or training. I am talking about the conception of a project, creating the product, costing, teaching, training and watching it sell. And in this world, the holistic nutrition world does not exist even though I use a lot of my nutrition knowledge in my job.
Last week we received word that Pusateri’s wants to list our products after we sent samples. They liked them and wanted to know what else we made.
When I sold cakes in the late eighties and nineties, Pusateri’s was the top of the heap when it came to quality foods. We were the first cake company to sell to them, shortly after both they and we opened. We sold to them until the day we sold the bakery 11 years later. To see my products approved by them (they are not in the store yet) and a number of the other old customers that have already starting buying is putting me right back where I was 16 years ago. We are even buying ingredients from the very first food distributor I ever bought from almost 25 years ago and from several other former suppliers. What is old is new and what is new is old. They say you can never go back but apparently you can. And while I have always been busy, now I actually feel like I am accomplishing something because I am also productive.
Does your work make you feel this way? Do you sometimes feel so busy yet there is no satisfaction or sense of completion. When you are productive, there is a really great sense of accomplishment that makes working feel so beneficial and it is not just the paycheck you receive from it. It is the actual work. We speak a lot about nutrition and the right foods to eat but here is something to consider. If you have health issues and all the good eating and exercise is not doing it for you, think about what you do every day and how it makes you feel. maybe it your job or daily activities that are getting your down and affecting you how feel. Just something to think about.
I hope you get to feel about your work the way I do because it really is a great way to feel.
