I’m going to admit it: I like to eat toast for breakfast.
I know I’m suppose to be anti-carbs and super clean with my eating, but if I happen to be home, my favorite breakfast to make is two eggs, toast, bacon, and a mocha. I love it–simple to make and super tasty to eat.
But even if I have all of the ingredients, I don’t always make it if I forget one important step…
…taking out the butter dish.
As a kid in the early 80’s I grew up on a steady diet of margarine. My parents regularly had a nice tub of Country Crock in their refrigerator. I loved how easily margarine spread on to everything.
As an adult, I’ve read more about the bad wrap that butter received, and how margarine isn’t exactly as healthy as we once thought, so I switched to eating real butter.
The problem?
It has to soften.
Read almost any baking recipe that involves butter and it tends to involve soften butter.
Sure, I could attempt to spread it on my toast without softening it, but it stays clumped together, and my toast tends to break under the pressure of my “forceful” spreading.
So instead, I need to think ahead and take the butter out a bit early. I have to give it some time for it to be ready. If I do, it goes on even easier then margarine, I actually end up using a bit less of it because I can get just the right amount, and my toast remains perfectly intact as it awaits the addition of strawberry jam.
People are no different. If we rush anything with them, they’ll remain a bit resistant, they’ll clump up, and that relationship may not remain intact–it may break under the pressure.
This is especially important for all of my friends who are in the start of a school year and recruiting new members into clubs or planning the next big event or dress up day. If we do too much, too soon, people will resist, and our connection with them may break apart.
But if we give them time to truly warm up to an idea and not require too much of them in that participation, they are more likely to join in and the whole process will be a lot smoother.
The sequence is important and it takes time and trust.
The way I sometimes phrase it, “I didn’t ask my wife to marry me before our first date. Back then, I simply asked her to coffee. It was many, many, many dates later after asking her to a movie, and to a play, and to meet my parents, that I asked if she’d marry me.”
So as a new school year is underway, take the time. Take out the butter dish. Invest in the people around you and build that trust.
The final results can be pretty cool.
And now I want to go eat some toast 🙂
