During the past decade, I owned and operated a fast-casual restaurant. The food was customizable Asian noodle boxes, basically like Subway or Chipotle but for noodles. Customers chose their fresh ingredients and watched as they were cooked in front of them in a wok. When the pandemic hit, I had to lay off most of the staff, leaving only my main cook, Macario.
Throughout 2020 and early 2021, we were only open for curbside pickup. I took charge of assembling the orders before cooking them, washing the woks, and packaging the orders after they were cooked. Meanwhile, Macario was responsible for cooking using four woks simultaneously!
Even though we didn't have to serve people in-store, the rush of orders still arrived all at the same time, as if customers had conspired to place them in synchronicity. Dozens at the same time. On top of the incoming orders, I had all the problems of running a restaurant that was burning cash on my mind, so I tended to get stressed sometimes.
On those occasions, Macario would just smile, glance at me, and say, “Don’t think about it, don’t think about all of them. Just focus on the next one and do it.”
And that’s what I did, what we both did. It was like a dance, barely speaking, just occasionally looking at each other to reaffirm commitment, and performing our tasks as fast and accurately as we could.
In the restaurant industry, as with many tasks we confront in life, the more you think about doing them, the more you become paralyzed by the seemingly overwhelming amount of work. Restaurant staff call this being “in the weeds." It's that moment when you are serving many people at the same time. Your mind gets overwhelmed, and clarity becomes clouded. It's a very stressful situation if you let it get into your mind. The solution is encapsulated in one of the most memorable slogans of all time:
"Just do it."
When I go for a bike ride, I remind myself not to overthink it. Just put on my gear and start pedaling. Keep pedaling and pedaling. Don't think too much. Don't let my mind overwhelm me with thoughts. Just enjoy the feeling that the exercise brings me.
I try to tie every experience I have to the Yogi teachings. I try to prove them for myself. And these particular experiences remind me of three things the ancient Yogis teach:
Everyone is your teacher.
Control your mind, don’t let it control you.
When a task seems overwhelming, seemingly insurmountable, don't think too much about it. Assess quickly and start. Just start, do your best and keep going until it is finished.
