
If you’ve ever baked a cake, you know that if you put in fresh, delicious ingredients in the appropriate amounts at the appropriate time, you often create something delicious. You also know that while other ingredients may be available to you and within easy reach (like mustard, pepper, garlic or vinegar, for example) they simply don’t belong in your cake so you purposely and consciously choose to leave them out, right? Feeling good about yourself can be a similar process.
You’re completely aware that wrong ingredients will ruin your cake and you wouldn’t expect a positive result, because it’s all very logical and rational when it comes to baking, isn’t it? So here’s my question:
If you desire to create a “delicious” life, why add ingredients that you know don’t work... and leave out the ingredients you know would make your life... a piece of cake?
So many things impact your “cake,” from the food you eat, to the people you spend time with. Even the thoughts you think are important to having a delicious life. Here’s my list of seven important ingredients that can make having a delicious life a piece of cake:
1. What you eat. You can’t really be surprised if your body doesn’t look or feel its best when you feed it fast food, takeout, foods high in sugar and bad fats, highly processed foods, and/or too much alcohol. Think of your car. If you wouldn’t consider putting sand in your gas tank, why would you put “sub-food” in your body? Is that really what you want to add to your “cake?”
2. Your thoughts. You can’t really be surprised that you don’t feel good about yourself if you continuously think you’re unlovable, unworthy, and or incapable. If these or similar thoughts are playing over and over in your mind, take a look at how they’re contributing to your “cake.” Maybe you don’t feel you deserve a loving relationship or maybe they cause you to feel unworthy of something fabulous or incapable of achieving a goal or dream. That’s a recipe for disappointment – not a delicious life!
3. Your feelings. If you feel overweight, unattractive or ill equipped in some way, it plays into the way you dress, the way you carry yourself, what you do (or don’t do) and the relationships you have (or avoid having). These feelings are the same as adding rotten eggs and sour milk to your “cake.”
4. What you hear. You can’t be surprised that you’re feeling bad and thinking wrong things if you’re listening to people who are negative, critical, pessimistic, and/or judgmental. Of course you want to be a good friend or even the “go to person” when someone has needs to vent or complain, but how you feel once this negativity is dumped on you will only leave a bad taste in your mouth. What you listen to can hold you back from creating scrumptious results in your own life.
5. What you see. You can’t feel calm, serene and comfortable if you’re reading negative news or being “entertained” by shows filled with misery, pain, violence or vulgarity. Sure, you may be up-to-date on the latest tragedies and misfortunes, but these visuals become ingredients that definitely don’t belong in the mix for creating a delicious life. Nervous, vulnerable and afraid don’t make for a tasty piece of “cake.”
6. What you do. Can you be surprised if you’re not excited about your life when you’re putting in nothing but the chores or tasks at home, throwing in those necessary errands and a big heaping scoop of that boring and unfulfilling job? Add these to your recipe, instead: self-care time, exercise time, down time, healthy eating time, and personal fulfillment and fun time. Can you see how adding more of these each day can result in a much better piece of “cake”?
7. What you believe. Your belief system is created by the repetition of an idea from someone you trust. We are willing to believe what we are willing to receive. For example, let’s say you were told, “You can be, do, or have anything"… and you were told this a lot. You probably believe that. But if you were on the receiving end of someone who had limited beliefs themselves, you may believe that you are not meant to be wealthy, happy, thin, or anything else delicious. Take a good look to see if these are the kinds of harsh ingredients you’ve been putting into your “cake.”
Life should – and can – be delicious!
All of these ingredients contribute to who we are, how we live and the results we can expect. But the best part about being in charge of the recipe for a delicious life is that it’s possible to get a better piece of cake with just a few changes!
Whatever ingredients aren’t working well can slowly and steadily be changed for ones that will make your life a scrumptious, mouth-watering and flavorful “cake.” I hope you will see your life as a delicious piece of cake that should be lived well and shared often.
What’s your favorite recipe for a “delicious life”?
Photo from here, with thanks.