Like Peter Lind, Karen Messina-Hirsch loves to play with food. As the president and founder of Food Performance in Wheaton, Illinois, Messina-Hirsch makes food the center of her professional life. It's a focus that had its roots in early child hood. Growing up in a small Italian community in New Jersey, she has fond memories of working side by side with her mom in the kitchen. Apparently, she also had early signs of talent. As an eighth grader, she won a local contest for her innovative German chocolate cake. By high school, she already knew she wanted to work in a test kitchen.
College brought food-service, dietetics and business administration degrees along with early kudos for her culinary skills. She managed a bakery at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, then moved on to the test kitchens at General Mills in Minneapolis, never once doubting that food was the career for her. She's since gone out on her own as an independent consultant.
Recently, she returned to school to pursue a culinary arts degree at Kendall College in Evanston, Illinois. Since she's already 25 years into a successful food career, others question her need for that education so late in the game. Yet she has an endless curiosity for her subject matter and a tireless energy for learning the skills.
While no job is perfect, Messina-Hirsch often labors with joy. Her career has seen many variations, but food is always at the center of the enterprise. Still on her horizon: She may write a cookbook or host a cooking show. She admits to admiring Mar tin Yan of the popular TV program Yan Can Cook for his incredible cutting methods.
"He's like a virtuoso pianist," she says. "He probably spends hours just practicing his knife techniques." While her family and friends sometimes think she's a little too dedicated, her time spent drumming up and testing new recipes is not only work, it's also play. You can call it a busman's holiday, but she's thrilled to spend her days off in the kitchen puttering with new dishes. To her, it's all grist for the mill-experience she can apply later in her work with corporate clients. This is a woman who knows that work can and should be a celebration of talents, not an exercise in tedium. As 19th-century British writer John Ruskin said: "Labor without joy is base."
Surrounding yourself with activities you love increases your potential for satisfaction. But it isn't always easy to find ways to integrate your interests and skills into your everyday work life. It takes energy, effort and a willingness to take chances.
Heisler cites the example of a general practice attorney. The lawyer's first passion is for horses, but she wasn't sure whether and how to convert her passion into a livelihood. So she started slowly, working as a part-time riding instructor on weekends to see if she was on the right track. She was. Today, her life as an attorney is far more tolerable because she knows it's almost over. Day by day, she's working toward the time when she'll be able to buy a horse farm in northern Wisconsin. Sound like fun? Admittedly, hobbies make high-risk career choices. At the same time, they practically guarantee you a spot on the enjoyment roster. The real question is. How much do you want to risk on the possibility of happiness? While you may envy people like Messina-Hirsch and the future horse-farm owner, their spark is the result of finding and following a personal dream. Messina-Hirsch thinks fun-as a by-product of work-becomes more important as you age. At 47, she's aware that time is precious and wants to make sure she enjoys every minute she can. That's why she's always looking for new ways to expand her knowledge, develop her skills and enjoy herself.
New York career counselor Judy Rosemarin has come to a similar conclusion. At 25, Rosemarin was determined to make people take her seriously. When she was 35, she was still in tent on pursuing that goal. By the time she was 45, though, she recognized that she was trying too hard and decided to lighten up.
"Once I realized that I was taking myself too seriously, I relaxed and let go," says Rosemarin. "And guess what? That's when people started to take me seriously." Perhaps you need to stop working so hard to gain respectability and take your own happiness more seriously. Or, as some would say: Lighten up and live a little.
