I'd love a career using my passion for cooking, but how can I do this and make the money to support my family?

ShiftDoctor answer

By Rosie Walford a...

Hello.

I am sure that when you name your situation - feeling torn between doing what you love and what you can afford to do - you speak for many others.

One thing to acknowledge, right from the start, is that you know your passions, and have made serious progress towards expressing them already - on TV, through weekend jobs. Bravo! You clearly have flair, courage and a go-get attitude which will stand you in good stead.

Another thing I think to notice is that you are already living out a different area of your values - to provide and care for your children. Your current job may not be your first love, but it is helping you meet that other priority of yours. So one question is how to continue that, whilst also finding time and energy for cooking. I firmly believe that fulfilled parents are more likely to create happy, self-fulfilling children, so here's another reason to get to work on that question, without guilt or sense of being torn.

You mention that your mortgage is a big obligation and tie to your old job. This makes me think that it would be good to have a look at your satisfaction with the overall balance of the major elements in your life, and consider how the various factors impact on one another. You can go to www.thebigstretch.com/expansivethinking.html and scroll down to 'life-coaching and creative thinking combined'. There you can download an exercise which just might open up your thinking around the issues you're facing. For example, it may show up that maintaining your current home is diminishing your satisfaction in the working world, in personal growth, in finances etc. or it may show that a certain level of financial security is making your family and relationship elements really good...

When you've done the 'wheel of life', particular questions for you might be:

• What is it costing me to keep this home environment, in terms of other areas of my life?
• Which pairs of areas impact on each other...and does this suggest any other ways to address the situation?
• What would the wheel look like and feel like if you had a balanced and fulfilled life?

Why must it be Either/Or??? What about earning AND cooking lots? You sound skilled and experienced at your current work. Is it time to 'trade in' that good reputation with your existing employer? Can you picture working part time in your old job, while training and developing as a chef? I have often seen successful career shifters taper down the days per week that they do at their old work, going part time. That way you support yourself for the basics whilst the new path takes its time to take root. in my experience, employers are more willing to let experienced employees go part time than lose them. So i'd ask you:

• What experience do you have that is particularly valuable to your current employer, that they'd hate to lose or have to retrain someone else in?
• What role might you uniquely take, if you were at the same level or higher, but part time?
• What do you do particularly well?

Then perhaps use the answers to approach your old employer for part time work that uses your skills and knowledge of their system. Do not worry about being the first to ask to go part time - it happens a lot more often than you'd think.

You might be able to have paid work AND chef training in unexpected ways - for example by getting paid to assist a chef you admire. Allow the possibility and embellish it in your mind's eye. just see what comes up if you enter a daydreaming mode and don't judge any possibilities as too impossible. Maybe you'll see yourself getting paid to assist a chef you admire; or being a hugely well-paid chef for a particular type of event or situation.

I'm sure you have done some marketing to get your first cooking jobs. If you want to attract more of a certain kind of client, you could consider a couple of excellent courses from Annie Meachem who works with the principle of attraction marketing. There is a one-day Attraction Marketing workshop in early April and a 12 week group coaching tele-class starting later in April, probably weekly. See www.trelliscoaching.com

Finally, I always think it's worth checking for yourself whether it's your role and function, or the field which your organisation is in that stifles you. So here's a funny question which might expand your options: how do sales skills apply in food and cooking businesses? Would you feel more fulfilled (but still well paid) if you subsidised your cooking with food-related sales in between?

I hope that these questions open up a few different avenues of thought.

Yours,
Rosie.