What's on the menu?

My friend, his name is going to be kept secret, is working on a menu currently for a new situation he is getting into. He has asked me about this menu quite a bit and asked my advice on what items to put on, what prices to assign to different items, and the format types of things. This got me to thinking about what kind of menu we put out as people. We all have heard the premise that first impressions are always very important and I think that might be true in some cases but today, I am choosing to talk about the whole impression that we give out. Everyone talks about the importance of a first impression.

I can talk today about my first impression of my friend that I am talking about. My first impression is that he is a good friend to the people in his life, driven toward getting things done, a good host, and very attune to a woman's needs. In saying that, I don't know everything about him and have yet to read the whole "menu." I started to think about the entire menu that I am putting out. I chose to break up this "personality menu" into three parts. They are:

• What items do I put on the menu?
• How much do my items cost?
• What format do I want my menu to be in?

I hope you are all following this logic because it's going to get deep. I am going to go through each of these questions and help you see how we can build an attractive menu where people WILL order and pay appropriately for our items. This isn't some attempt at selling myself but I wanted you to see the parallel between the two.

1. What Items do I put on the menu?

First of all we have to decide what we are really wanting to present to the world. In a restaurant, the chef would have to decide what kinds of foods he would want to be known for. It could be that he is an Italian Chef and only makes Italian food or maybe he is know for his cajun cooking or let's go my style and say this hot chef is known for his soul food. My logic says that in life we have to decide what kind of person we want to be known as. Are we a person who is known for our hearts, our minds, our bodies, a mixture, etc? Today, I decided I really want to be known to the world in two different "cooking styles." I want to be known for my heart and my mind. I want the world to see that I am a lover of people and although I make mistakes, I generally love others. I also want to be known for my wisdom and knowledge. I crave knowing more about everything in life and seek wisdom in all situations. I am hoping that I am known for those two things.

2. How much do my items cost?

Ok, when you are building a menu, you have to be realistic about how much you are going to ask for each item. For example, let's say you have an order or french fries on your menu. You have to take into consideration quite a few things before you decide on a price. You have to decide how much food you are willing to give the customer, how much it costs you to produce the french fries to completion, and what your customer base looks like. I am reasoning to say that this is the same with your personality traits and how much you give to others. Let's go with honesty as a personality trait. First we have to decide how much honesty we are willing to give those in our lives. I am not suggesting that you should lie in any situation in life but sometimes too much honesty can get you into trouble. (Ask the queen of honesty) You have to decide what you are willing to gamble to be completely honest with people and give them a heaping helping of honesty or a small order of honesty. Next you have to ask yourself how much this honesty is costing you and is it evening out in profit. I will be more clear about this one. Let's go back to the french fries first. The french fries cost you some money to buy the actual potatoes, the oil, the salt, and the container to put them into. In my example of honesty, we are going to talk in terms of confiding in another. Just recently I have been trusted with information in which I completely hurt another person by disclosing. I apologized and admitted my fault but unfortunately, I lost the friendship either way. My question to you is...how much is the truth going to cost you? Is it going to cost you a friendship, a relationship, the chance of being uncovered etc? You have to decide how much you are going to charge another person for your honesty. It could be that you only trust certain things with certain people and from there noone can buy them outside of that. Or maybe you can trust people after time, and then be honest. I don't know...you decide on the cost analysis of this highly misjudged quality. Honesty is a hard thing to monitor.

3. What format is my menu going to be in?

This is one of the less important yet valid concerns. We are back to the restuarant biz for a minute. Let's say you put your menu out in neon green and the color hurts the eyes of your customer so they don't want to hold it long and don't order. Or perhaps you make it in such a dull color that they don't even pick it up. The best idea is make it noticable yet pleasing to the eye and pictures are always a plus where the items look delicious. Well, here I go into the world of personality again. I think that how we put ourselves out is very important as to who will be in our lives and what they will buy. I recently made a very big mistake, like I said. I chose to put myself out in honesty. I chose to admit my weakness, my fault, and my mistake. This didn't help the situation but I know that I put my menu out in a godly and humbled manner and I don't wish to put it out any other way. The people that will be attracted to my menu are those that can forgive, understand, and who can claim their own mistakes in life. Anyone else is subject to not purchase my goods!

I am sorry that today's post was hard to follow. I also wanted to thank the man who inspired this post. I will not mention his name because he is sweatin' it and not wanting to be in my blog. Well, you know what, you just were and it was for a good purpose. Good luck getting your menu ready and thanks for teaching me a lesson through it! Much love to you all and have a great day!

~Erica~