Understanding Why We Rely on Recipes

Cookie cutters only work when we are baking cookies—using the same recipes. We can create beautiful and delicious cookies that look the same. But what happens outside the kitchen when we adopt someone else’s recipes and frameworks?

Recipes can be very helpful when cooking and it is always fun for me to imagine and adapt them. When someone asks me for a recipe, I often can’t recreate it exactly the same. And I get bored following the same recipe over and over. Even when it comes to cooking, I like to push the edges and explore what’s possible.

No two sunsets are ever the same. In a room of thousands of people, no two people have the same exact feet. But in that same room, many of us may share the same beliefs and recipes for success, which are our manmade creations.

Beliefs come from stories that have been created; not from nature. Our habits originate from how we’ve been socialized and what we practice. We’ve created norms and rules, which are to be followed—much like what we created with social media where we are instructed to follow, instead of deeply connect, share and create together. Following has become a recipe that someone outside ourselves needs to lead and save us. But what if we are actually not here to follow or be followers?

Taking the Road Less Traveled instead of the Well Beaten Path

Frameworks, best practices and so much that we have relied on up to now are no longer useful to where we are headed. It’s a choice whether we want to stay in the current broken systems and apply band-aid solutions that we will continue to perpetuate the same sick organizations and societies that we inherited. If we want to continue to support the machines of misery that crush our souls, then we will continue to experience the same outcomes.

As my friend Unni Krishnan, Founder at LongWealth, shares, “In a world that provides suffocating alternatives for external comparison, the inner voice is left to wither away leading to a machine-like existence leading to burn out, mental illness and self-harm. All living potential springs from the intrinsic elements of human existence leading to ingenuity, contentment and impact.”

When we no longer solve problems (20th-century mindset) and focus on transforming problems into opportunities (21st consciousness), we leave the recipes, someone else’s best practices and frameworks behind. These cookie-cutter solutions no longer serve us on the path ahead, which includes deep questioning, listening and dialogue within ourselves and each other.

Remember, one size fits only applies when you are an X-Large T-shirt.

No More Recipes Means Living and Working on Our Own Terms

We can navigate our own path and be bold enough to live life on our own terms, without apologizing for who we are. We don’t need to conform or comply when we trust our heart and take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. Fitting in, and being better than others, is what we can choose to let go of.

Our opportunity is staring right at us: to be the best we can be for ourselves. Inner reflection is an opportunity to get in touch with your authentic voice and intuition, which may have become muffled by the noise of the external world.

When you, and only you, can recognize that you can go beyond where you were guided and not accept the status quo, you will no longer evaluate a situation as being “better” or “worse.”

You will start questioning what’s possible and consider what your own unique experiments are into uncharted waters.