Cooking without a recipe is a lot like bootstrapping.
At my home, we frequently head into the kitchen to make dinner without anything specific in mind. We take a look around to see what ingredients we have on hand. Being a Bootstrapper, I realize I'm in ideation and apply the principle, use everything by looking for ingredients in the refrigerator, pantry, garden, and of course, my imagination.
If I engaged in this process today to create a demo, um, dish, I would head to the fridge looking for something fresh as a foundation. Those spicy roasted green chilies are perfect. What other veggies would pair well? Perhaps an onion and some garlic? Next stop is the freezer. After sorting through the frozen veggies, I find the perfect main ingredient, an organic chicken. Can it be enchiladas? Off to the pantry. There are no tortillas and no rice. There are some tortilla chips and dried posole. Eureka! We also have just the right spices, a few limes, and even cilantro in the garden.
Time to choose another essential element: the container. The soup pot is the container of choice for the posole. The Bootstrap subgroups and the community as a whole serve as a container while you cook up your own business.
Experience and the overall Bootstrap principle, right action right time, guide the process. First the posole is soaked and then set it on the backburner to simmer. In a separate pot, I create a stock with the onion, garlic and chicken. Once the stock is done, it's time to add the green chilies, spices, posole and simmer again.
Patience is a key ingredient in the process that many forget. In any creative process, there are natural periods of activity and inactivity. Just like a great soup can't be rushed, creation of a business takes time. Experience and taste will let you know when it's ready. Scoop out a heaping bowl of goodness for yourself and your friends, top with a few chips, cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Soup's on!
An interesting Inner Journey exercise is to reflect on your internal creative process. Consider one of your own creations. How do you choose what ingredients to include? What resources do you tap that help you choose a direction? Intuition? An idea? A feeling? A sensation? Previous experience? What patterns do you notice in your unique process? Have fun exploring!
Please join me and say welcome to my new Inner Journey co-lead, Brandy Rainey-Amstel. She brings a wealth of bootstrap knowledge and experience as well as a passion for the inner journey.
Join the Inner Journey Subgroup on September 9th at 7p for a hands-on opportunity to exercise your creative process. Brandy will show us how to create a vision board. Whether your dream is a bubbling possibility or a dawning reality, a vision board can help to identify your vision and give it clarity, reinforce your daily affirmations, and keep your attention on your intentions.
It will be a potluck, so bring please bring food and/or your favorite beverages to share. For more information, join the Inner Journey Yahoogroup, check out the evite or email me at ellen AT ellenfriedman (dot com).
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