Photo Credit: Anand Rohimal for our documentary in production Everything The Light Touches

It’s been almost 4 months since I was laid off from Twitter and working as a full-time chef, content creator, entrepreneur and more for my business The Spicy Mango Foodies, LLC aka Chef Priyanka. While that may sound like a ‘blessing,’ since y’all know my passion lies within the culinary, food, entertainment, writing and traveling industries, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. My situation is unique compared to most, because I’ve been juggling multiple careers independently for a decade (and a bit more), so I wanted to share what I’ve learned in my new life. But first, let’s talk about the ‘why.’

Why did I not decide to pursue another opportunity in corporate America or big tech? The answer to this is obvious – I didn’t have the energy or desire to pursue learning about another company, devote my days to working for someone else, and continuously forgo opportunities on the Chef Priyanka side for my corporate life. It wouldn’t be fair to me or the company to do that and it was also a matter of being self aware. I was aware of where my passions lie and it would be careless to not honor that.

Now, for the tea. Regardless of where you are in your career and what your desires are, getting laid off is a crappy feeling – especially if you’re a top performer at your company (ehem). No one wants to feel “unwanted.” So, first I had to get over the feeling of ‘rejection.’ Now here is where my situation is unique – because I had been juggling managing multiple careers for so long, I was used to having a jam packed schedule for a decade – every hour was booked with work for my job and work for my chef career. And I thrived under high pressure, high stakes, rigid schedules and deadlines. So, when that’s taken away, everything is WEIRD. My schedule isn’t back-to-back, I have more time to think aka an idle mind at times, I didn’t have to “report” to anyone, I wasn’t on a stringent routine, and my schedule was different from everyone around me. This sudden new life wasn’t easy for me to get used to (and I’m still working through it), but throughout all this, here is what I learned:

• Be comfortable with the uncomfortable
  • It was INCREDIBLY uncomfortable for me to not have a routine and I had to get used to that. What I had to learn is pushing myself to take the time to develop my own routine without anyone dictating one.
• You don’t know your discipline potential until you are forced to know
  • My high pressure careers forced me to be disciplined…at least that’s what I though. What I learned is that I am actually more innately disciplined on my own versus my careers making me disciplined. Having discipline can be anything from making your bed every morning to consciously building a routine to staying true to your principles. It wasn’t my high pressure careers that were keeping me disciplined, it was me.
• Initiate plans
  • Formally, I wasn’t the one initiating social outings because I was so busy and I am an introvert. So, when I would spend my days working, talking and going to meetings, my energy was SPENT. In my new found life, my days are different, so I learned to make more of an initiative to ask friends about their schedules, make plans and spend more time with the people that I love!
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help
  • I was just always go, go, go, and couldn’t always stop to ask for help – whether it be for work stuff or personal stuff. Now that I have a bit more time, I’ve learned to ask my network for help across projects, navigating this new life, and being ok with change. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends, family, and those in your network (whom you trust) for help. No one is perfect, no one is happy all the time, and asking for help can be the best thing you can do for yourself and possibly even them!
• Use your time wisely
  • It’s always easy and tempting to waste your time, i.e., sleep in everyday, try to fill a void or your time with whoever is available, sleep late, and so on and so forth. But, if there is one thing I learned over these past few months is time is the most precious element we cannot control. And even if we I have “much more time’ on my hands now, I can use it to work on all of the projects that I formally wasn’t able to! Like launching my first product, creating more cooking content, meeting more like-minded people, etc. Value your time like a diamond – it’s precious!
• Do not procrastinate
  • It is SO easy to lay around and wait till the last minute. And because I formally THRIVED on deadlines and high stakes, I learned to have to set my own deadlines. My god, it is WAY easier said than done. Why? Because there’s no one telling me to do anything – it’s ME telling ME! It’s hard to take yourself seriously. But then I thought – there is no one else that is going to write this, cook this, or make it – I HAVE to learn to set these deadlines to succeed.
• There will be high high’s and low low’s
  • I always knew that with my creative line of work, there are really high high’s and very low low’s. The issue with this now is that all of my energy and weight is on this, because I am not juggling another career (so my attention is all in one place). This has pushed me to develop patience and think more wisely, versus emotionally. This has been a very difficult learning – I for one have zero patience and my work related to this career is very passion-driven, so I have to learn to make a conscious effort to not think heavily on the emotional side. But as I progress, each project becomes easier because I don’t put as much weight on it!
• Don’t waste your energy
  • In my opinion, energy, just like time, is one of the most valuable elements of life. But one upside to energy is we can control it to a certain degree. Instead of expending my energy on projects, people or social gatherings that deplete me, I have learned to fill my ‘free time’ with activities that don’t deplete me – even if that’s just me plopping and watching TV. As someone who is introverted, I have to pick and choose events that are worth my time – not because I think I’m ‘special,’ but because I don’t want to put myself in a situation that is draining to me.
• Enjoy your life
  • Sounds simple, but as someone who has always been a hard working, deadline driven and high achieving person, ‘enjoying life’ can be a challenge. I always feel like there’s something more to do, to accomplish, places to go, etc. But, in this new life of mine, I’ve had to make a conscious effort to reflect on everything I have done and enjoy everything there is to look forward to.
• Have faith & hope
  • No, this isn’t one of those wall hangings from Home Goods (by the way, I LOVE Home Goods), but it is something I have had to learn to do more of since getting laid off. For the past decade plus, I have worked my tuchus off tirelessly – starting a blog (you’re reading it right here), sharing thousands of recipes, finally getting on TV in 2017 and becoming a Food Network Champion, winning a few other cooking competitions, publishing a book, having several day-time TV appearances, live TV appearances, writing a column for The Washington Post, doing international commercials, doing international guest chef activations, producing and starring in my first self-funded documentary (Everything The Light Touches) and SO much more. People don’t necessarily get lucky, they work hard – and in my case, really REALLY hard. So, even though I didn’t exit my corporate life in the manner I’d like to have, I have to have faith that everything happens for a reason and I need to have hope in myself and what I’m striving to do.

As my career moves forward, I’m sure I’ll be able to add more learnings to this list or some may even change. But as of now, I wanted to share this with you all to give you some insight into my new life and possibly be able to help someone out there with this advice/insight!

For now, keep a look out on my upcoming events:

• Feb 27th 6:30-8:30pm ET: Live talk and bites from my book The Modern Tiffin at Edy’s Grocer. TICKETS
• March 1 6pm ET: Panelist for Watertight x Covergirl
• March 2 6pm ET: Panelist for Meta/Facebook. INFO HERE.
• March 8, March 22, April 16 7pm ET: “Meals The Made Us Pop-Up Dinner” with Maker’s Mark. TICKETS
• March 19th 3pm ET: TEDx Binghamton University. My first TEDx talk. MORE INFO SOON.

More coming soon!! xoxo

Priyanka