On my way to JFK
It always happens, every year when I fast for Lent I go through some soul searching, ask for guidance, pray about it, and then follow the direction I feel He wishes me to go. This particular year brought many things to the forefront, some things that made me really think. I always believe that God puts you on certain paths for a reason. Some of those paths lead to nowhere but it is a path that if you have a strong faith, you stay the course knowing it has a purpose. This year was no exception.
My First Meal
One thing I prayed about was direction with various aspects of my life. Is this where He wants me to be? You know, doing The Social Chef thing. What kept coming up during some meditation was, is this where I want to be a year from now, 5-years from now or how about 10-years from now? The obvious answer was, no…it certainly is not. Spending countless hours on Facebook is not what I wish to do, not then and certainly not now. I never created The Social Chef for that reason, but I got sucked in. Guilty as charged but certainly my fault and not the fault of anyone else but me. I love my followers, I unquestionably was not much service to you my followers over the past year and certainly not the past few months. I got caught up in likes…but now I realize, I rather have 4 quarters than a 100 pennies any day.
Those that follow me, engage with me, you are my dollars. There were a few other things that played a key role in me feeling I 
needed to make some changes, readjust my sail and take a new direction.
So what am I saying? I am saying The Social Chef when created had a purpose; a mission…and I emphatically lost focus of that mission. I spent a considerable amount of time and energy creating a blog and do not spend nearly enough time there. I spent too much time trying to build my Facebook followers, discounting the ones I already had and not engaging as I have in the past…I am sorry for that. While having a lot of followers on Facebook is good for the ego, I am secure enough with who I am to know that the number of likes I get does not mean I need to keep up with the Joneses. Seems that is what’s trending on Facebook these days and
Approaching Greece
it has really been a contributing factor for this change. I want every one of you that likes me on Facebook to know, I truly appreciate your support, old followers and new followers alike. But I want you all to come to my page everyday and I realize that will never happen. Facebook is a business controlling who sees the things I do and what I would really like those who follow me to see. While I do whine about it I really have no right to complain, they are a business offering me a free platform to express myself…so who am I to bang my pots and pans for how they run their business? I guess I got caught up thinking that I am owed something from the Zuckster. I guess that is our society today and Facebook has sucked us in, certainly me. Facebook created a drug…give people something for free long enough we become dependent and feel we deserve it to always be free. Give me more, more, more, of that drug is what I see happening. I don’t do well being controlled, never did, never will. What Facebook has done is just that, sucked us all in, giving us something for free and sucking the time and life right out of us. Now they have us and they have controlled our daily behavior. As they tighten the
Taxi Ride In Greece
reigns and make it more difficult for people to see what we want them to see, we are forced to pay for exposure. It really is a very good business model, even though I don’t like it, it was ingenious. But then why did I create a blog and spend countless hours on Facebook and on top of it complain they hide my followers? I will answer that for you. To get people to your blog is difficult. People can stay on one network (Facebook) click here or there or everywhere and see what they want and move on. To get them to engage in a blog is not easy. So again, I cannot complain for the free platform Facebook gave me. I have a blog and I have choices. I paid for a blog theme, I paid for a domain, I paid for a hosting company, I paid for someone to help create my blog and here I am spending my life on Facebook. I can pay for TV ads, radio, pay-per-click, just to name a few. I can even pay Facebook, but don’t bet your
Easter Church in Greece
enchilada I will do that. You see, I really have no reason to complain. But I do have a choice.
My fast has made me come to the realization my dream is really a far out dream. But I don’t think anything is impossible, unless you veer off course. I just need to get more focused and kick it up a notch. More than anything, I need to wean myself off Facebook and spend more time on my blog bringing content that people want to see and don’t get to see all that often. How many times can I share my pizza or someone else’s mac & cheese? I don’t think my food friends came to join me for something they can already see on thousands of other Facebook pages. I need to spend more time traveling and sharing things with you on The Social Chef blog that excites me. If it excites me, I sure hope it will do the same for you.
Easter Church in Greece
So here I am…Easter Sunday and guess what? I am in Athens…and not Athens Georgia. I am in Athens, Greece. I sincerely appreciate all the emails I received from you all asking if I was okay. I decided to do something that inspired The Social Chef in the first place and that was alone time well spent with God. So forgive me for not telling you but I just decided that I needed my time with Him and so that is exactly what I did. Now about Greece. This trip is going to be different than previous trips. While I will do some cooking here, share recipes, I plan to do a little more exploring and guess what…I am going to take you with me. I will still write blogs and share them and share a few things on Facebook, but also on Google, Twitter, Pinterest, but I am going to be doing more private emails for those who really want to follow me and are as passionate about worldly cuisine as I am and who want to share my excursions. I’ll be sharing some private moments, some family moments.
Easter Church in Greece
I’ll share restaurants and culinary experiences. You all know how much I love to take photographs, so now you can bet the whole enchilada I will share tons of photos too. This time I’m going to send it to you, right in your inbox. I created The Social Chef to have a relationship with you and utilize social media as a platform to share it all, I never planned to get sucked in using only Facebook. I can only do this through my blog because Facebook controls who can see me. I chose to stop my complaining and do something about it. I will still be on Facebook just not as often as before. Now you can control if you really want to follow me or not because much of it will not be on Facebook. Just subscribe to follow me and come share The Social Chefs culinary adventures.
I also decided to do something I really wanted to do more of before, that is visit in person more restaurants, owners, chefs, cafes and not sit behind my computer all day on Facebook. I may even visit diners, drive inns and dives, only doubt I will find many of
Easter Church in Greece
them here in Greece. I also am going to meet some food bloggers. Yes…I am going to meet other food bloggers who share the same passion as I do. I already have lined a few up here in Greece and I cannot wait to meet them and share them with you. Who better to give you the culinary experience and authentic recipes than people from a certain country or region? I will still do The Social Chef Featured Food Page focusing on food bloggers and I will do them on Facebook, I just plan to take it a step further. Stay tuned for that!
I am excited to share my trip to Greece with you. I would love if there is anything you might want to know, see or have me even try while here to simply ask me. I want to make it fun and I want you to enjoy it. If you have anything you might like to see more of or any ideas for me on my blog, I am open to suggestion. If it makes sense and I have the ability to add that to my blog I will do it. I want my blog to be your blog…after all…The Social Chef is all about being social.
So now that I have arrived in Greece just in time for Easter, I need to get cooking. I wish you and your family a Happy Easter.
