Prior to becoming the sales person that I am today, a few years back I could have had a different interpretation of the meaning coming to the table. I would have simply thought that coming to the table means showing up at the table to feast. Just as simple as that. But how wrong was I, coming to the table isn’t as self explanatory as coming to sit and dine, but rather “what are you bringing to the table to be dined”.. This simply means, if people have converged somewhere to sit and dine, before joining them to share in that meal, you too ought to have brought something forth worth sharing.
Coming to the table is not coming to dine but rather bringing the food along to be shared by others. Like have you ever been invited to a party and you are told its a BYOB party you definitely need to show up with a bottle. The bottle is what acts a ticket to entry to allow you be a part of that party and not only entry but it also gives you the privileges of even drinking other superior drinks that other people brought to the party which would be very okay, why, because you obliged by showing up with something that the rules of the party demanded.
So that is what coming to the table means in a nutshell.
In life too, we all ought to come to the table as well. We need to bring something forth so that people around you can partake. Coming to the table means contribution for success. If people are harvesting, what portion of the harvest was your contribution. If people are rejoicing and sharing in merry, what part of that merry did you bring along?
Coming to the table is the effort we put towards achieving something or a result. The result of this something could be anything and diverse from achieving a sales target, to achieving good behaviour or provision of a daily meal. We come to the table to feast,to celebrate, to award, to make merry, but only this can come to life, if you were apart of the contribution of that success. Coming to the table can be as simple as even performing well in duties assigned to us, how well did you execute your chores, what were the aftermath results?
Coming to the table is result oriented. Meaning in everything we do to achieve what we may define as success to us,has to bear fruits. The fruits that are born out of hard work. You can come to the table in many ways including participating in the contribution towards something like even moulding your child into becoming a good human being, developing good character, being a part of their growth and their school success. It can even be, becoming the best spouse, how do you support your partner to achieve something. Apart from offering monetary support how else are you there for them and mostly emotionally, coming to the table may be disguised as any form of participation, including emotional support, that will eventually translate into a kind of result. A result that will be celebrated by the recepient of that support.
Coming to the table is a line my bosses use all the time especially when congratulating those that have performed well or met their targes implying that they did their part. At the same time it’s also used on those that didn’t meet their targets implying that they didn’t do their part they did not come to the table. Each one of us has a duty to do iregardless of the positions we are in life, we all need to show up to do our parts wherever and whenever. Are you coming to the table in your areas of life?
sensesNhumor 