Ingredients for Life
Imagine making a delicious cake. In order for this cake to come together into a dish of pure deliciousness, you need the right ingredients such as flour, baking soda, eggs, sugar, and whatever else depending on the flavor you are making. All of these ingredients when blended and baked together create the most delectable, moist cake for you to enjoy. If you are anything like me, that cake that you just made is a red velvet cake. Oh, how I love red velvet, but I digress.
But, let’s talk about the ingredients for your life. How do you form yourself every day to be the best version of you? What do you engage in, say to yourself, or ingest, to ensure that you are your best version of today? To ensure that you are a better version today than yesterday, and a better version tomorrow than today. Let me give you some ingredients to assist you.
First you need a cup of confidence, followed by a cup of belief as you start your day. Be confident as you go out into the world, and believe in yourself to accomplish everything that you set out to accomplish. Believe that what you set your mind and heart to, you can and will achieve. Confidently make steps towards your goal, as everyday will get you closer to your goal than the day before.
Next, I need you to add a heaping cup of focus. There are so many distractions in the world, that a ten-minute social media splurge, could easily turn into hours. Before you know it, your quick ten-minute splurge has turned into three or four hours, and you have nothing to show for it. Being focused does not mean that you cannot take breaks, and there is nothing wrong with checking social media from time to time for fun, but try to give yourself a time limit to doing so and stick to it. Set an alarm if you have to and give yourself a cold hard stop, so that you can get back to focusing on your task at hand, because the reality is that in today’s fast-paced world, time is precious, and as we all know, time is something that we can never get back.
Now that you have added a heaping cup of focus, I want you to add two heaping cups of gratitude. One cup is to show gratitude for all that you currently have, and the other is to show gratitude for all that is coming your way. An attitude of gratitude means being thankful for everything in your life, no matter how big or small. Having gratitude can truly lead to greater happiness. Think about where you currently are in life. Even if you are not exactly where you want to be, myself included, you are still much closer than you were perhaps two or three ago. Be grateful for your progress and keep going, which takes us to our last ingredient which is motivation.
Staying motivated at all times can admittedly be challenging, as we all have our good and not so great days. We all have those days where we simply want to stay in bed watching our favorite movies and eating our favorite snacks. But staying motivated is essential to achieving all that you have set out to achieve.
One way to stay motivated is to celebrate each milestone that you make to keep yourself encouraged. For example, as I’m sure we have all heard before, when it comes to losing weight, rather than focus on your overall goal of fifty pounds, celebrate each ten pounds that you lose. Perhaps at the first ten pounds, you treat yourself to a small treat that you haven’t eaten. Then maybe for the next ten pounds lost, you treat yourself to a concert. It could be anything, but the point is to celebrate certain milestones to keep yourself motivated and encouraged rather than waiting until you get to that overall goal that you have.
So, what ingredients will you add to your life to form yourself every day? Whatever they may be, just remember to be kind to yourself and enjoy the journey. And those “other” ingredients such as negative thoughts and bad vibes, whether it comes from you or someone else should be kept far away. Keep pushing forward and stay committed to your goals. You can do it. I believe in you.
