Long before I became a doctor, at around the age of fifteen, the thing I wanted to be more than anything else was a chef in a five-star restaurant. At the tender young age of fifteen l was a bizarre mix of part Daniel Boone, part book-worm, and part chef-wanna-be. My first magazine subscription was Field and Stream and my second and third was Bon Appetit and Food and Wine. After eight years of cooking in restaurants I did become a chef in the world-renowned five-star New Orleans restaurant, Arnaud’s, where nine U.S. Presidents had eaten.
However, it was my Mother who taught me much of what I know of cooking, and a magnificent cook she is! Little did I know that 32 years later something she taught me in the kitchen would be what came to mind for me upon my learning one of the greatest secrets to success in any situation in life!
In cooking many believe that a good cook or chef doesn’t have to use measuring spoons or measuring cups…as many of you likely can attest to as you grew up watching your grandmother just pour ingredients into their hand and cook without any recipes.
It would be a mistake, however, to think that they just randomly put whatever amount of the spice that happened to come out on their hand. They just had an eye for how much they needed to use and in that respect it was very precise.
Their recipes were also filled with the love for their family and this love resulted in some of the best meals we can ever remember eating.
The first time I tried my hand at baking a family favorite, Molasses Crinkles cookies, I read the generationally passed down, stained, handwritten recipe card, and diligently added the ingredients as directed.
When it came time to add the brown sugar, the bag of brown sugar was clumpy and hard to measure out, but I poured the clumps into the 1-cup measuring cup and added the required amount of cups to the other ingredients.
After baking them, I was quite disappointed. The cookies didn’t look right, and they definitely didn’t taste good.
My mother looked at me and said, “Davey, brown sugar will only result in great tasting cookies if you get rid of the clumps and press down the sugar into the cup so that you really get the right amount of sugar.”
It was this experience that came to mind when I learned the greatest secret for producing a successful outcome. It turns out that the same is true in life as in cookies. Indeed, it is one the greatest secret of all ages. The measure you use is the measure you will receive!
If we want the sweet taste of success in any aspect of our lives, we must know that what we do, think, and feel in our life we will get back in equal measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing!
Many have heard this concept said in many different ways. It comes from the Bible in the book of Luke which says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
Later in Luke this secret is spelled out more precisely. The paraphrased verse says, “A good man with a positive desire in his heart will draw to himself that which is good; and a negative man with negativity in his heart will draw to himself that which is negative: for from the dominant ideal in the heart his mouth speaks into reality.”
Everything that is happening in our life is the result of the dominant beliefs and visions of our heart. Everyone on the planet is using this principle every moment of every day, whether they realize it or not. It is true for man and woman, Christian or Buddhist, child or adult.
It is just as true that you can be thinking and projecting with strong emotion, a mixture of positive and negative and get mediocrity!
Mediocrity is one of the most prevalent things produced, because most people know exactly what they want, but then sabotage its manifestation by the disbelief that they can really have what they want.
This brown sugar secret is the law of success…that which you joyfully and consistently project out to the people and situations in life, you will abundantly harvest the same back to yourself.
If you press it down, shake it together, and give to others the same thing you that want…then and only then will you receive what you want in even greater amounts. This law, just as in cooking, works best when done with a heart of love.
• So if you want to have friends…be truly friendly!
• If you want people to be nice to you…be truly nice!
• If you want to be successful in business…see yourself as successful, act successful, speak only in successful terms, do as successful people do, help others be successful.
• If you want health…then do only those things that are truly healthy for the body, mind, and spirit, and practice the actions of healthy people.
• If you want only good things in your life…see only good in others, be only good, see only perfect Divine plan in action in all situations.
I want to share one last thing that will supercharge your ability to create more of what you want.
Challenge yourself, in every moment of every day, to become the personification of love, the embodiment of love, projecting love into every person and situation, and all unwanted things will fall away, and every good desire of your heart will be realized effortlessly.
In a world that offers very few guarantees…in a world economy where those who know how to be successful continue being more successful, while others who don’t know continue to fail...I guarantee this will work for you…because it is Divine law!
Dr. David A. Jernigan is the founder of Hansa Center for Optimum Health in Wichita, Kansas. http://www.hansacenter.com 316-686-5900 Dr. Jernigan is also the President of the American Biological Medicine Association.
