How do you react under pressure? Do you blow up at anything and anyone? Do you timidly hide under the covers until it blows over? Do you ignore it and pretend there's nothing wrong?
Jason and I were watching
Hell's Kitchen last night and everyone was yelling, screaming, blaming each other and just all around being jerks to each other. They are constantly taking hard situations and making them worse!! For those who don't watch the show there are a number of contestants split into two teams, each team has to work together to make some pretty awesome meals in a timely and orderly fashion. It's a lot of finger pointing and cursing and name calling though. Oh it drives me nuts!! I love cooking (and I'm damn good at it, thank you very much) and I enjoy some of the tips they give on this show. I find myself yelling weird, motherly things at the screen though when we watch this show. Like "OMG guys, just WORK TOGETHER!!" or "Stop blaming so and so and admit you made a mistake!!" I think the fact that it drives me crazy is part of the appeal though.
But it got me thinking: My friends and I have a routine when the going gets tough. I call my support system (Mom, Caroline, Desi and Jason - though I no longer have to call him, lol) I vent it out with each of them. They listen, I cry, they advise, I may or may not take their advice (normally I do, and the cool thing is 9 times out of 10 they all agree on what should be done) but the one thing I have never let happen is to get fully discouraged. Sure there are things other people have said that really get me down. Sure I might spend a day obsessing over it, constantly repeating the conversation or problem until I'm in tears
but I
never let it keep me down. I haven't yet and I don't plan to. Nine times out of ten I find that tough situations force me to push myself harder and pull my friends and I closer together. If someone says something negative about me I set out to prove them wrong (ok so I set out to prove to myself that I'm better than that, or that I
am worth the extra effort, or that I
am talented in whatever area). These people are on my team, at all times. Whenever one of us has a problem we vent it out with each other and cry with each other and rejoice with each other.
When working as part of a team I work hard to pull us together as a team, when others start looking out for number one instead of the team I call them on it (though I do so privately and professionally, even if the team isn't in a work environment). I want to succeed and working on a team means that if my
team doesn't succeed, neither do I. How these people on
Hell's Kitchen don't get that, I'll never understand. Maybe it's mob-mentality or something. Whatever it is it drives me crazy!! I would
love a chance at this kind of thing!! For the most part the Red Team just needs a good leader.
Now I know they aren't lifelong friends on this show and I understand that they've just met a few weeks back but they're acting worse than
Mean Girls and to each
other! I know that their support systems have probably been taken from them for a bit, but it just amazes me how the one constant on this show is the sheer bullshit they put each other through!! It's a job, people, you can't always pick who you work with, you won't always like them, hell you're not even guaranteed to like any of them, but you
make it work, because it's a job and that's the only way to really succeed. You don't talk shit about each other, you don't point out every little thing the others do wrong, you encourage each other and help each other succeed.
They have the communication factor down but they're totally doing it wrong!! The thing I like most about this show though: it makes me analyze myself. I never want to act like they do on there, I never want to be the poison that kills the team. I'd rather be the one who brings people together than the one who tears them apart. You might not like what life dishes out, you may not agree with every decision your teammates make, but you damn well better have their backs or you'll all lose.
But that's just my two cents ;)
Lots of Love,
2 comments:
I agree, and I find a support system works sooo much better than letting things get to me. Hell's Kitchen always makes me thankful for the level headed people in my life.
My daughter loves Hell's Kitchen and I watched it with her for the first time the other night. My husband walked in and started screaming at the chef for being so rude and horrible to the team members. I found it kind of entertaining and was fascinated with the biggest 10 pound lobsters I've ever seen :}
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