A Tip to Remember
Get Involved, Get In tune, and Get It Out:
The Voice of the People
If you have ever been a server, you know how hectic it can be. It only takes one table to put you past your capacity and stressed out.
Serving is a very difficult job. Your pay, the ability to pay your bills, is solely based on what someone else thinks of you. You can try your hardest and walk away empty-handed, or you can do the bare minimum for your table and make more money in one night than the entire week. It’s an unpredictable business, but so is life. The very nature of the job has taught me about humanity: the ability to make mistakes and recover with tact and integrity.
This past month, I received a very generous tip from one of my customers: one I neither expected nor thought I deserved. Although it was a financial tip, it was also a tip to life.
Tip: Trust yourself and your work. Trust your perception of yourself and not the faulty perceptions of others.
This seems like an obvious tip, but it’s not. Life circumstances have a tendency of making people re-evaluate who they are. For the past month, I have received a number of career opportunities that have made me question my passion, my path, my integrity, and my intentions. In addition, I have also received a lot of feedback on my performance in my field, which has further made me question myself.
Part of working hard for me is battling the perceptions of others. To most people, I come off to be a soft spoken person, which usually means people see me as weak and incapable of competently completing important tasks. I often find myself explaining who I am as a person because I lack charisma and audacity.
Last month, I was on the verge of immobility. I am a strong person who doesn’t rely on the perception of other people to determine her path; however, I was so overwhelmed with the pressure and perception other people in my field had, I almost did nothing. I thought, Maybe this isn’t for me.
All opportunities are fleeting. The question is whether or not you can remain strong enough to withstand the letdowns, the pressure, and the failures. You have to be fully invested in YOU even if other people are not. It sucks to want something so bad and to not get it because of a faulty perception.
Most people will never take the time to know me as a person. In my eyes, I wasn’t a great server. I
was so busy. I was in the weeds…juggling 20 different things, but I did the job well.
The tip I received was a reality check. Perception is irrelevant. We are judged by what we do, and eventually who we are and how we react. So when faced with doubt, keep the faith, keep doing, keep focused, and keep moving. Stillness is Death.
For questions, please email me at: crystalswilliams02@gmail.com