Although cakes have been around for thousands of years, the first recipe for confectionery icing was originally published in a cookbook in the late seventeen hundreds.
It was from that point on that cakes became a much more enjoyable food, thanks to the addition of this new fancy, sugary topping.
Hence the phrase, icing on the cake. An attractive but inessential enhancement. The unexpected and additional benefit to something already good.
What’s interesting is, those four words actually have a profound implication on the level of fulfillment in our lives, not just in our belly.
It’s simply a matter of expectation. People who have reached a place of enduring contentment with themselves, those who have given up a perfectionist standard of what life should be, those who have deleted the word should from their internal narratives, they view the majority of life’s experiences as icing. Attractive enhancements. Additional benefits to something already good.
Nice work if you can get it, but it’s not a must. Or a demand. There’s no pouting or disappointment if it doesn’t happen. The cake is what matters. The cake is what we can control.
On the other hand, the people who tyrannize themselves through the anxiety of comparison, those who are trapped in the battle of enoughness, those who are never quite at peace with the path they take, they live only for the icing. The cake is simply a means to a sugary end. And if they don’t get what they expect, all hell breaks loose.
Which attitude describes you? Can you achieve genuine satisfaction from the cake alone, or do you always need the icing to be happy?
If it’s true that there is a direct proportion between our level of expectation and the amount of stress we experience, then perhaps our goal is to shift our mindset so that the cake is enough for us.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you missing out on your life by comparing it to an unrealistic standard?
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.
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