If someone we consider a successful person gave their younger self the exact instructions to follow to be equally successful as today, they wouldn’t be able to do it. Not unless they had the context of the journey and mistakes made along the way. We cannot remember much of the nuance between decisions we make, so any kind of “recipe” for success would essentially be incomplete. 

  For example, during a Vietnam episode of “No Reservations,”  Anthony Bourdain introduced us to a lady who would cook a giant pot of Pho from the same recipe daily for over 20 years. Still, as experienced by Bourdain, the taste would be different each day. Same cook, same recipe, but other soup each time.

  Similarly, in the movie “The Karate Kid,” waxing on and off the car turned Daniel-san into a physically capable martial artist. And this was after doing the tedious work each day. As I noticed with my martial arts training, the physical movements might be the same. Still, so many things are happening on more profound levels of physiology and psychology. As Bruce Lee might observe, no two punches are the same. And this is probably the reason why different students progress at different rates. Other students, same training, yet different (but not any less valuable) results.

  Heraclitus once said, “We can never step into the same river twice.” The river is always different because it’s moving. And we are always different because we are growing. Maybe it is essential to examine why we follow certain things closely. I’ve fucked up cooking eggs by repeatedly following the same recipe, but I’ve also had good egg days. And yet, for some reason, I have difficulty explaining everything I did when it happened “correctly.” 

No two recipes are alike, even if the (even skilled) cook is the same. Why should we judge ourselves when things don’t work out, even after ” following the recipe” and doing everything we thought we should?