There’s this really interesting concept I am sure you have heard before, that says that “If you just work as hard as you can, you can achieve anything you want.” Sound familiar? Okay, so…let’s stare at that cake for a minute. Beautiful right? Probably tasty…probably expensive as hell. Now…lets bake a cake. If we use that old adage, we just work as hard as we can at that cake…we put all the sweat, the effort, our soul into that cake…and blamo! it appears!………..wrong. The road to baking that cake does take effort, however, you have to understand the ingredients that go into the cake. Moreover, you have to understand the process of baking that cake. Please, someone, for the sake of this story, go into your kitchen, take out bag of flour, and give it all the effort you can! Then send me a picture.

Life, is very similar to this cake baking process. Yes, I learned this today while reading. When we are looking to become successful, we have to model ourselves after those who are…wait…you guessed it….successful already. Sure life by trial and error works, but it takes way too long. In fact, if you can learn from someone else’s successes and failures, you have cut significant time off in getting to where you want to go. You do have to have that internal drive, but you have to understand what goes into the process. That person didn’t wake up at 4:30 am every single morning just for the hell of it. They did it for a reason. They have a plan, and that involves waking up at that time (for whatever they are doing).

I read a lot of books, and the reason I read a lot of books is to gain the ingredients of success. To find out what other people are doing and what they have done to get them to where they want to go. I want to be a wild success and to have created masterpieces. But without an organized plan, the proper tools to get me there, and a clue in the world, I will continue to strike out. “Without self-control, enthusiasm resembles an unharnessed lightning of an electrical storm — it may strike anywhere; it may destroy life and property.”

Remember, your life is like a cake. Throw misguided enthusiasm at it…you’ll get the farthest thing from a cake possible.

Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project