The Recipe For Success
When I started cooking, I avoided recipes that said "salt to taste" like the plague. Why? Because I had no concept of salt. I am not kidding. A dish that lacked salt to me was just a different flavour profile of the recipe. Spice levels was something I could recognise and adjust at the snap of my fingers (Thank you Indian roots!) But this was never the case with salt. A dish that lacked salt just made me wonder what was different or if I should increase the amount of all my other ingredients since the depth that salt brings about is not there. But I never knew it was the salt.
What intimidated me more was the varieties of salt in recipes - kosher, sea salt, Himalayan pink salt, table salt. My God. And here's what I realised as I started cooking more - even if I followed the amount of salt the recipe called for to the grain, my salt level in my dish could still be off. Why? Because there is NO fixed formula. The amount and type of salt you need for a dish depends on SO many things. Maybe the tomatoes that you are using is different from the kind available from the food blogger's area. Maybe Brand B's curry paste is different from Brand A. Maybe you should have used the Himalayan pink salt for that hummus instead of table salt. There is no one fit all solution for the level of salt in a recipe and there is no way you can blindly follow the amount of salt a recipe calls for. You have to taste as you cook, use your judgement and taste, taste and taste again. Mess it up, and you have messed up the medley of your entire recipe.
Now you're wondering why I'm going on about salt. When I decided to quit my job and try writing and live a more creative life early this year, I spent hours scouring blogs and websites similar to my field of interest that had succeeded. I read every [insert number] of ways to success. I downloaded every printable on ways to bring more creativity into your life. And you know what. None of it worked. Not a single one. They were just gleaming mirages that didn't change my life in 30 days as they promised to. I'm not trashing them. Maybe it might have worked for someone else. But not for me. To me they were all synonyms of the same thing. And that is when it struck me. There is no one fit all solution for success and growth. Sure, you can look at the people who have succeeded in your field of interest but you can't exactly copy what they did to achieve their growth and success. You have a different voice from that successful entrepreneur. You have a different attitude from that blogger. You have a different set of values from that influencer. If there was a standardised method for success, we would all be successful. And in the same way (How boring!)
The recipe for success has some pretty basic, obvious ingredients - talent, grit, hard work. But the question remains - So what next? What is the salt that is going to bring all these together? And that's where these miracle planners fail. Maybe you need to hustle. Maybe you need to build up an Instagram profile. Maybe you need to turn vegan. Maybe you need to do all three. The judgement call is all in your hands. And a little bit of your gut. Because you know best. Add too little and your talent, your visibility and your potential are all minimised. Add too much at the wrong place and you have over-exerted yourself with nothing tangible. But add the right amount, at the right place and at the right time. Oh boy. Can you almost taste it?
I'm still scared when it comes for the time to add salt to my dish. So if you thought that I might be your girl for this, I'm sorry to disappoint you because I'm still figuring it out myself. What I am hoping however, is that you will join me in this journey of figuring out the salt for our lives, the journey of self-realisation and understanding in pursuit of happiness and fulfilment.
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