How to Bake a Delicious Life Worth Savoring

I love to bake, and I love cookies.

Any seasoned baker knows that the most efficient and effective way to approach making cookies is to be organized about it:

Read the recipe.
Verify that you have the ingredients you’ll need.
Understand the process and how long it will take. Some cookies go straight into the oven. Others need to chill first.
Pull out all the ingredients.
Carefully measure everything you’ll need and assemble all of the ingredients in your work space (your “mis-en-place”).
Preheat the oven, if the cookie batter goes straight into the oven.
Make the cookies and bake them.

The excitement of savoring those warm, freshly baked treats is undeniable. But when we are too focused on eating the cookies, it can be easy to skip crucial steps in the process.

In your haste, you might skip reading the recipe thoroughly. You might start throwing things into the mixing bowl before you have measured your ingredients. You may not realize you’re missing a crucial ingredient until it comes time to add it.

Perhaps in your rush to “get on with it” you measure ingredients haphazardly, don’t mix thoroughly, or even forget to preheat the oven.

The Impulse to Rush

The allure of cookies fresh from the oven is seductive. It’s understandable and completely normal that you’re in a rush to get the cookies in the oven so you can enjoy delicious, warm cookies as soon as possible.

But rushing ingredients into the oven doesn’t guarantee the delicious cookies you crave.

The allure of cookies fresh from the oven is seductive. But rushing ingredients into the oven doesn’t guarantee the delicious cookies you crave.

In fact, the more you rush the more likely you are to end up with a heap of inedible cookie dough.

Even worse: maybe, in your haste, you never stopped to consider that you don’t really like cookies that much. Perhaps you feel like you should like cookies because all of your friends like cookies, and because cookies are overwhelmingly popular.

But if you’re being honest with yourself, what you really craved was cupcakes.

Or maybe you know that for health reasons you need to stay away from cookies for a while, but you felt pressured to make cookies because that’s what everyone is making.

The Hazards of Hustle Culture

This metaphor mirrors our approach to planning our lives, our years, and our days.

The rush to achieve, to tick off boxes under the guise of seemingly “moving forward,” can often lead you down a path that doesn’t truly align with what you want or need.

This is the risk of “hustle culture,” the culture that champions immediate action and quick results.

This push of urgency toward “making progress” often comes at the expense of careful introspection about what you truly desire or consideration of how your stated outcome aligns with your values and skills.

The rush to “succeed” without laying out the ingredients of what you genuinely desire, can lead to outcomes that are half-baked and unsatisfying.

The rush to “succeed” without defining what success looks like for you, and without laying out the ingredients of what you genuinely desire, can lead to outcomes that are half-baked and unsatisfying.

Achieving a goal that wasn’t truly yours to begin with — that simply met someone else’s desire or expectation — can feel as hollow as biting into a poorly-made cookie.

Achieving a goal that wasn’t truly yours to begin with can feel as hollow as biting into a poorly-made cookie.

Burnout, disillusionment, and a sense of being lost are often the companions of such hurried journeys.

The Value of Slowing Down

Taking the time to slow down to consider deeply what you truly want out of life and how you want to get there, is akin to carefully following a beloved recipe.

Slowing down is about ensuring that each ingredient aligns with your values and desired outcome: a life that is delicious, fulfilling, joyful, and truly your own.

Far from being an obstacle on the path to your destination, slowing down is about ensuring that each ingredient aligns with your values and desired outcome: a life that is delicious, fulfilling, joyful, and truly your own.

This deliberate process not only enhances the likelihood of achieving your true desires but also enriches the journey itself.

Practical Steps to Slow Down

1. Reassess your current goals. To begin this process of slowing down, start by reassessing your current goals and outcomes. Consider not only what you want, but the distinct flavor and texture of it.

Chocolate chip cookies is a starting point, but it’s a broad category.

Do you want chewy or crispy cookies? Do you want big chips or little chips? Dark chocolate, semi-sweet, milk, or white chocolate? Do you want nuts or raisins in the mix? Peanut butter chips? Chocolate or peanut butter cookie dough? The options are endless.

2. Consider what is motivating your choices. With each option, consider whether the decision you’re making is genuinely yours or whether you are choosing based on preferences inherited from parents, teachers, mentors, friends, or societal expectations.

3. Practice mindfulness. Allow yourself moments of quiet reflection as you go through your day.

4. Reflect on what brings you joy and meaning. Consider the ingredients of your day: which ones you enjoy and which ones you don’t really enjoy. What are your best skills, how can you bring them to bear on this process of making cookies?

5. Journal. Journaling your thoughts and desires can also provide clarity.

Remember, it’s about quality, not speed.

These Are Your Cookies

In our lives, as in baking cookies, the sweetness of the outcome is directly related to the care and authenticity we invest in the process.

Your parents, teachers, and mentors had their chance to make the cookies they wanted to make.

These are your cookies. Take a moment to breathe, reflect, and ensure that the life you’re building is made up of the right ingredients for you.

This is your life. These are your cookies. Take a moment to breathe, reflect, and ensure that the life you’re building is made up of the right ingredients for you.

After all, it’s not just about having cookies to eat; it’s about enjoying every bite of the cookies you truly love.

Baking is More Fun With Friends

Baking is always more fun when done with other people, and the same is true for the process of planning your life or your year.

Navigating the path to truly understanding what you want can be a challenging journey—one that benefits greatly from guidance and support.

A Visioning session with a coach offers you the opportunity to explore your desires, values, and goals in a structured, supportive, judgment-free environment.

A Visioning session with a coach offers you the opportunity to explore your desires, values, and goals in a structured, supportive, judgment-free environment.

Together, we can sift through the clutter of societal expectations and personal uncertainties to uncover the genuine aspirations that resonate with your core.

If you’re ready to take the first step towards baking your perfect batch of life’s cookies—ones that align with your authentic self and bring you joy and fulfillment—reach out to me.

Let’s plan your year with intention, clarity, and a vision that’s uniquely yours. Your journey towards a fulfilling and delicious life, guided by your true desires, starts now.