You pray for the cake. Then the Universe gives you the batter, oil, icing, a pan, an oven, and you get frustrated and leave the kitchen.

You don’t have the recipe (plot twist, nobody does), so you give up and wait for the universe to provide that too, instead of approaching it through trial and error. You don’t even try to bake the damn cake!

You’re afraid you’re going to burn the cake in front of everyone, embarrass yourself and waste your precious resources. So instead, you twiddle your thumbs, look at the clock and wait for the Lord to arrive in your kitchen. You let the ingredients spoil instead of risking baking a deformed cake where there’s at least a chance of success AND people get to eat!

There is so much untapped talent and potential circling around. I see something uniquely special in everyone. Unfortunately, what happens is that we remain idle for too long and let the milk spoil on the kitchen counter. Each one of us is capable of bringing so much good into the world, but we freeze at the opportunity as soon as it presents itself.

We give up at the first roadblock when things get uncomfortable. We pretend like we’re missing something, especially ability, so we wait until the circumstances are more ideal and we’re better prepared.

We already have the equipment and the ingredients.

The ideal moment is now.

The most valuable player

You have to let go of this idea that you need to bake a masterpiece every time you step into the kitchen. Just do your best and whip up something that you’re proud of because you gave it your all.

You cannot control the outcomes, but you do control the inputs. You must, however, examine those efforts closely to see if they’re truly your best.

Don’t be someone who half-asses things. Play the game and stop simply showing up with your zipper down waiting for a participation trophy. Don’t you want to be the MVP of your own life? Then it’s time to own how you show up. Put everything else aside for a brief moment and focus on the present moment in front of you and the task at hand.

There are hungry people relying on you.

There will inevitably be days you give it everything you’ve got and feel like a failure anyways. Alright, it didn’t turn out right. But guess what?

Some days you’ll win. Some you’ll lose. You just need to have a winning record.

The team that wins the NBA finals only needs to win four out of seven games. Not all seven. In fact, the best stories are those where they’ve lost the first three and miraculously win four in a row to come back and steal the championship. A series of small victories after losing only made the victory that much better. Imperfection resulted in the most incredible, unanticipated outcome.

So please, I beg you, show up everyday with your best effort as your beautiful and imperfect self.

The world needs you to bake them a cake.