Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Life is like...a bread recipe

Our lives are comprised of several variables that contribute to our happiness, success, and overall well-being. Such variables include, but are clearly not limited to, our food, shelter, families, careers, financial prosperity, physical condition, mental stability, and spiritual health.

When reviewing who we are and what we’ve become, we can view each of these variables as ingredients that have ultimately created the end product of our selves. Just as each ingredient in a bread recipe adds value to the overall quality of the loaf, each variable, or ingredient, in our life recipe adds value to the overall quality of our lives. We must reflect upon ourselves and determine whether or not we are satisfied with our current product, or our lives as they currently exist.

If we are satisfied with what we’ve become, we should continue to follow the recipe as is. However, if we lack satisfaction with our current product, we must modify our recipe. If unsatisfied, we review all of the ingredients within our recipe and then add to, remove from, or modify quantities currently on the list. We continue to research variables through trial and error in effort to develop the perfect recipe for our lives just as the baker tries different ingredients in the bread recipe until she discovers the perfect recipe. She continues to follow the perfect recipe from the point of discovery just as we will continue to follow the perfect recipe for our lives as soon as it is discovered.

Once discovered, although each ingredient in the bread recipe is crucial to produce the perfect loaf, the small amount of yeast included in the recipe is the element that allows the loaf to rise to its optimum size. Without the yeast, the loaf would still exist, but at a lesser potential. Too much yeast would yield a product that is fragile and full of holes.

What ingredient in our lives expands our potential to the same extent that yeast expands the bread? The answer is...Passion. We must identify our passion and, if we have not done so already, add that passion to our life recipe. Without passion, we still exist, but just as the loaf, we exist at a lesser potential. By integrating that passion into our recipe, we have the ability to rise to our optimum potential.

Finding our passion and interlacing it with the ingredients in our lives, such as our careers and families, will significantly enhance our potential. Find your passion, that which you love and that which excites you, that which strikes your deepest interests; and work that passion into your life.

Some of us are searching for our passion while some of us are well aware of our passion. Unfortunately, although some of us have already identified our passion, we fail to add it to the other ingredients in our lives. Omitting our identified passion from our recipe can be compared to a baker who omits the yeast from the bread recipe even though the ingredient sits on the counter waiting to be used.

Be cautious to regulate the amount of passion added to your life. Just as an excessive yeast ratio can yield a fragile loaf of bread, an excessive passion ratio can yield a fragile life. Too much passion can begin to negatively impact other ingredients within your life such as your career and family life, resulting in a weaker overall well-being.

When we identify the right recipe for our lives and add passion to the blend, we then face the opportunity to reach our full potential.

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