In my latest attempt to kick my day off in a semi-healthy manner, I’ve recommitted myself to making breakfast smoothies. It’s been a frustrating process. Sadly, I’m not one of those folks who traipses into the kitchen, nary a recipe to be found, only to toss in a pinch of this and a cup of that and maybe add a little more this to create the most incredible dish on the planet (or smoothie, in this case).
99.999% of the time, I have to follow recipes verbatim. Even when I’ve made the same smoothie everyday of the week, the one time I attempt to do it from memory inevitably winds up tasting like pizzle.
Side note: No idea why the word “pizzle” popped into my head. However, it did remind me of Arsenio Hall in Coming to America during the brilliant, groundbreaking scene with Samuel L. Jackson, as seen here:
Anyway, back to my smoothies. If I do everything like I’m supposed to, according to the directions, usually, it tastes pretty good. If I don’t use a recipe and try to wing it, I’m pretty much assured it’s going to be disgusting.
EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE TIME.
It happened last week, and it was nothing short of magical. I had frozen cherries, and I’d even found a cherry smoothie recipe online. However, I didn’t have all the ingredients it called for. So, I threw caution to the wind and went for it. Cherries, almond extract, vanilla yogurt, maple syrup…oh yeah. It was definitely a “go big or go home” kind of experiment. Also, I think I’d actually had my coffee prior to making breakfast, so I felt I had superpowers.
It was so delicious. It was like angels descended from the heavens, leapt into the blender, and sacrificed themselves for the sake of my tasty breakfast.
Are you sitting down? Because here comes the metaphor that ties all this back to Ignite Denver: My miracle cherry almond smoothie is your submission idea. It goes against logic. There’s no reason to talk about your topic of choice other than the fact that you feel you must. It seems utterly ridiculous, but you submit the idea anyway, because you have to.
Be the cherry almond smoothie, friend. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Eh, not entirely true. You could wind up with another crap smoothie, but you could surprise yourself.
OK, so trying this again: Be willing to be the crap smoothie, friend. Do it, because you know there’s a chance you might wind up being a not crap smoothie.
Crap and smoothie are two words that shouldn’t incorporate the same sentence. I’m spiraling here.
Try something new. Despite feeling like you’re limited in scope, and presenting at Ignite Denver feels totally scary and unfamiliar, risk it anyway.
You have until 9/1/2016 to submit an idea. Go for it.