It’s common to check the ingredients of a product before purchase. We are always curious to know what we are consuming. Right now, especially in Los Angeles, natural and organic can make all of the difference for a consumer. If it’s only about taste why do ingredients even matter? There is something inside of us that desires quality. We want to consume the best things and furthermore, we want to see the best results. If you were a product what would your ingredient list read? Regardless if you can taste or see it what’s inside makes all of the difference. It’s important to assess what you’re composed of and ultimately what you’re offering. Having an understanding of what’s there will better guide what to do with it. Many are in pursuit of greatness and often don’t feel supported or that they don’t have enough resources. I think those things don’t matter. Yes, they serve a purpose but everything begins with YOU. This mindset will always free the need of others to finally start working and making progress and this mindset will allow creativity to surface. I believe we miss out on an opportunity because we are waiting for it. Knowing you are the dream builds the confidence that EVEN NOW YOU CAN DO SOMETHING. Let me challenge you with this thought; Stir what’s already inside of you and it will reveal that what you thought was lacking had only settled at the bottom. Right now you have enough to start and right now you have enough to keep going.
FIGURE IT OUT
Have you ever seen those people who can make good food out of anything? Literally. Give them a pillowcase, leftover water, shoelace and some salt and they will lay out an entire Thanksgiving spread. The cooking is found in the creativity. I know I go to Whole Foods Grocer and buy the best products and I still end up eating out. STILL! I’m not saying we don’t need an actual fish to make a fish dinner, if not we would be….. let me not throw fast food under the bus, but I am saying the focus should be more on what you have not what you’re lacking. We waste so much energy looking at what we don’t have that we fail to see whats already there. Whats there is enough to make something and when you’re creative and hopeful enough you’ll make something good. It’s not always having the end product figured out but allowing each step to lead you to the next. You want to be like a Sue Chef who can take anything and make something. Let nothing stop your creativity. Your creativity overcomes where your complaints only waste time. You don’t have time to waste what you should be living. Creativity says “I can do this” your complaints say “I wish I had more.” The thing is, you’ll always want more. You’ll always wish you had better pots and pans to cook with but the magic and skill are found in the Chef, not the cast iron. Either you can cook or you can’t and that doesn’t have to be limited by the pots and pans. Get your creativity back and you’ll build what you’ve been waiting on others to give you.
SHAKEN NOT STIRRED
Every now and then life has an ignorant way of waking you up. I personally do my best to discover what I need to work on because I prefer easing myself into change over letting life SLAP ME INTO IT lol. The hard truth is that some things need to be shaken. Stirring mixes but shaking binds ingredients together and thickens the entire product. Some parts of our lives need the maturity of thickened growth. Some ingredients are not good enough alone. If you find life is shaking you make sure that what is being mixed and bound is correct, otherwise things that should be removed won’t be distinguishable from things that should remain which will lead to a faulty outcome/bad taste. The beauty of shaking is that it forces us to face the facts and it forces us to move. As much as I hate tragedy and the result of natural disasters in heavily populated areas, I appreciate the response they pull out of us. These events always remind us what matters and challenge our infrastructures; what we have built. When we keep hope and cling to courage we learn to make the best out of any situation. This isn’t to say that bad is necessary, I don’t want bad things to happen, but it is to say the good of who we are will always remain and should surface something more than whats been. Some things in your life appear to be shaking and I say let it. You’re becoming stronger, more aware and a better you is being produced. Focus on what is there not what you’re losing to get there.
STIR BY DEFINITION
To move one’s hand or implement continuously or repeatedly through (a substance) in order to cool, mix, agitate, dissolve any or all of the component parts. To set into motion.
What I love about the definition is it comes down to the work you put in. The ingredients actually mean nothing to the finished product if they aren’t stirred. Without the process, you just have stuff but no product. We have spent too much time waiting to work where it is the very work that can set it all in motion. By definition, it mentions “CONTINUOUSLY” and “REPEATEDLY.” Once again I’m not saying that sometimes there aren’t needs but I am saying it begins with your work and once it begins YOU MUST KEEP GOING. You have to do something. You have to agitate. You have to be consistent because you MAKE the DIFFERENCE. You may discover that as you stir whats in the cup of your: dreams, health, family issues, money, mental issues, emotional sufferings, goals, spiritual pursuit or simply just levelling up that you didn’t even need anything else. You may discover that it was enough to serve something of great quality now and let that be what gets the recognition to create better later.
SERVE
We are so in a rush that we dread the work of mixing. We want a blender for every part of life. That’s just not reality and it doesn’t build the muscle. If you are the dream, like I always say, then the health of you will always trump the health of what you’re building. Why? Because a great product without a great producer destroys the testimony it was actually made for. Yes, we all want and could use a million dollars but more than that we need to know how someone else made it happen. It becomes our hope, that since someone proved it possible, then we can have faith for our unique route of the same journey. The person is what makes it a reality and not just a dream. And the testimony is what makes it a tool, not just a destination. Your testimony will always serve your journey. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. We don’t need faith for later, we need faith for now. Being more open to meet people will allow more resources to find you. It takes ingredients and maybe you’ve closed off your access because you’ve closed off too many people. Surrounding you right now, I promise you, are great people with many skills and talents. Have you really taken time to see whats in the people you already know? Have you ever taken time to really understand what’s in you? Once you have; ask yourself if you’ve really reached for help or have you been waiting for someone to notice you? The poverty mindset stops at corners where a mind of wealth builds from them. Who have you met recently? Your lack of faith has allowed your ingredients to settle and fear has kept you living on the surface. Dive back into your goals with the last few months of the year left (or first few months if you follow the Jewish calendar) and STIR WHATS THERE. You have enough to serve something now that will get you to the NEXT table of destiny.