There you are, on national television with the chance of a lifetime to ask the pros for advice, to take your time selecting your specific ingredients and to launch out with huge advantage, ready to go, and you forget the most important ingredient!  To make a stellar rice pudding it is important to remember the rice!  Add to that the fact that you cannot go back to correct your mistake; you are stuck with your choices.

In considering the embarrassment and self-loathing that David Martinez must have felt he still got up and did what he had to do to remain active in the competition.  The fact that he was almost voted out became moot to me as I began to  sense a resonance deep down that started me thinking about how this one little episode encapsulated so much of life.

Forgetting the main ingredient comes when you show up for that all important meeting and you realize that your notes are still on your desk so you would not forget to pick them up on your way out of the door.  Forgetting the main ingredient happens when those words came out of your mouth and you see the hurt they cause in someone you love.  Forgetting the main ingredient slays us when we get lost in chasing an internet rabbit, a mindless tv show or ‘hanging out’ when we suddenly realize that we lost track of time and missed an appointment.

Steven Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People refers to the elegant principle of “beginning with the end in mind.”  What a tragedy to move through the stages of the typical family life cycle and to realize, in the end, we forgot the most important ingredient.

What is your main ingredient?