Many people measure success in terms of how much they achieve or accumulate. According to best-selling author and world-renowned well-being practitioner Deepak Chopra, this definition of success limits you and keeps you trapped in a cycle of achievement and accumulation that creates more anxiety than success.
Chopra argues that your entire reality springs from an invisible, spiritual world of consciousness. This invisible realm pulses with the energy and knowledge of the trillions of thoughts that have ever existed and are yet to exist (we’ll refer to this energy and knowledge as “thought-energy”).
He explains that true success comes from aligning with the thought-energy that flows within you and connects you to everything in the universe. This connection allows you to understand that who you are—how you think, feel, and act—is more important than what you have—because everything you have and experience is a reflection of the thought-energy that flows through you.
(Shortform note: Chopra’s claim that your thoughts are the cause of your success isn’t new. The premise that an inherently good higher power orchestrates everything in the universe to reflect your thoughts has become increasingly popular since the publication of The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles in 1910. Like Chopra, Wattles asserts that positive life experiences come from aligning your conscious thoughts and beliefs with a benevolent force, and negative life experiences come from thinking negatively. We’ll explore how various ideologies frame this concept and compare them to Chopra’s ideas throughout the commentary in this guide.)
Throughout this guide, we’ll explain Chopra’s key ideas on thought-energy and how it impacts all of your experiences. We also provide methods to help you align with the flow of thought-energy, appreciate your significance in the world, and experience true success.
According to Chopra, the thought-energy that lives within the spiritual realm gives birth to and lives within all matter in the universe: In other words, everything you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch is simply a reflection of all of the thoughts that live in this spiritual realm.
Further, Chopra claims that, by flowing through everything in the universe, this thought-energy connects us all. It uses this connection to synchronize all of the interactions that govern and underlie the universe.
For example, we rely on the complex process of photosynthesis to keep the atmosphere in balance so that we can breathe, but we don’t need to learn how to breathe or explain to trees how to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. Rather, the spiritual realm provides all organisms in the universe with inherent knowledge and instincts that allow them to effortlessly interact with other organisms to support the survival and reproduction of all.
Chopra argues that there’s no separation between you and the spiritual realm: Everything you experience is a result of the interaction between your thoughts and the thought-energy that lives within the spiritual realm—even if you’re not aware of it. He explains that when you’re unaware of your inherent connection to the spiritual realm, you identify with physical reality—as we’ll see in the following section, this hinders your ability to feel successful.
The Purpose of Life Is to Experience “Oneness”
Chopra’s ideas about how the spiritual realm gives birth to all of your experiences are inextricably linked to Advaita Vedanta, a branch of Hindu philosophy that originated in the eighth century. A core belief of this philosophy is that there’s no separation between God, consciousness, and reality. The purpose of life is to directly experience “oneness” with all three of these aspects to overcome any separation you feel from your environment and other people. This feeling of “oneness” is akin to “knowing God.”
According to this philosophy, you experience “oneness” when you recognize that your reality is merely a reflection of the interplay between your thoughts and your experiences, as well as the interplay of collective consciousness (other people’s thoughts) with reality. However, your identity, or what you believe defines you as an individual, prevents you from developing this awareness by encouraging the misperception that you’re separate from God or others. For that reason, Advaita Vedanta practitioners focus on releasing their identity so that they can achieve this feeling of “oneness.”
We’ll explore how your identity inhibits your spiritual connection in more detail further on in the guide.
In this section, we’ll explore how your awareness of your connection to the spiritual realm influences your experience of success. We’ll first clarify why identifying with physical reality negatively impacts the way you feel about success. Then, we’ll explain how building awareness of the spiritual realm encourages you to feel truly successful.
Chopra claims that when you don’t feel connected to the spiritual realm, you assume there’s nothing more to your reality than what you perceive. This narrow point of view encourages you to identify solely with what’s happening outside of you, creates feelings of anxiety, and compels you to develop fear-based responses to your experiences.
Connecting to God Leads to Inner Peace and Fulfillment
Chopra’s claim that your lack of connection to the spiritual realm leads to external identification, feelings of anxiety, and difficult life experiences lies at the heart of many dominant religions. For example, Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, explains that God created you to fulfill a specific purpose, which underlies the meaning of every aspect of your life.
According to Warren, when you don’t trust that God has assigned you a specific purpose, you fail to understand the meaning of your life. This lack of trust allows a variety of factors—external (materialism), emotional (fear), and moral (false beliefs)—to motivate your thoughts and behaviors. Warren argues that these motivations destroy the possibility of peace in your life: You always feel anxious and unsure about your purpose on this earth, which causes you to find challenges in your life exceptionally difficult or meaningless.
On the other hand, when you believe that God has a purpose for you, you feel at peace. Warren claims that this is because instead of relying on different uncertain motivations, you can follow a single clear motivation: to fulfill God’s purpose for you. As a result, you understand the meaning of your life because you're able to appreciate the significance of your every experience.
Let’s clarify why your external focus creates a constant state of anxiety that leads to fear-based success.
Chopra explains that identifying with physical reality compels you to follow other people’s definitions of success and how they believe you should think, feel, or behave. As a result, you fall into the trap of trying to accumulate external symbols of success such as power, status, or wealth because you falsely believe that acquiring these things brings meaning to your life and creates long-term success.
(Shortform note: Jay Shetty (Think Like a Monk) sheds light on how external identification compels you to chase unsatisfying symbols of success. He explains how your family, friends, and culture influence you to conform to their expectations and make them happy: Since other people are nicer to you when you make them happy, you unconsciously conclude that your happiness depends on pleasing them. As a result, you tailor your behaviors and goals to fit their expectations. However, this preoccupation with pleasing others keeps you from choosing goals that make you feel happy.)
Chopra argues that the success you feel from acquiring and basing your identity on external symbols is fleeting because you only feel successful as long as they remain in your possession.
When your feelings of success depend on fleeting external experiences, you develop unhealthy fear-based responses to these experiences in an attempt to create and hold onto them. According to Chopra, these responses include: chasing the approval of others, controlling people or situations to get your own way, struggling or competing for what you want, and being overly protective of what you do manage to achieve or accumulate. However, your attempts to manipulate and force your reality into place just make you feel anxious and exhausted—unable to fully enjoy or appreciate what you do have.
The Desire for External Validation Motivates Status Goals
The Tao Te Ching, one of the ancient foundational texts of Taoism, clarifies why seeking external symbols of success encourages fear-based responses. It explains that your desire to receive external validation from others leads you to choose status-based goals, such as wealth and power, so that you can prove your worth to others. However, status-based goals are impossible to “achieve” since they rely on the idea that you should always aim for more (for instance, more money or higher status) to finally prove your worth and feel happy.
Your desire to fulfill this never-ending goal consumes you and surpasses your desire to feel happy now or to live harmoniously with other people. In other words, you focus all of your attention on achieving your goals instead of your overall well-being or the quality of your relationships. As a result, instead of accepting life as it happens and appreciating what’s going well, you fall into the trap of fear-based thinking—ignoring your emotional and physical health, isolating yourself from other people, engaging in competitive or controlling behaviors, or acting inauthentically—so that you can move up the ladder of success, prove your worth to others, and hopefully feel happy in the future.
Chopra argues that when you accept and feel your connection to the spiritual realm, your approach to life dramatically changes. Instead of filling you with fear, your life works with the flow of universal thought-energy and therefore brings you joy. Let’s explore Chopra’s explanation of why connecting to the spiritual realm helps you live more joyfully.
Chopra explains that when you feel the same energy that creates galaxies flowing within you, you can appreciate how your thoughts contribute to the complex flow of thought-energy that permeates everything in the universe.
Consequently, you’re able to perceive how you’re connected on an energetic level to each and every person. This feeling of connection changes how you regard yourself and others: Instead of judging yourself and others based on achievements or possessions, you accept that every person is inherently worthy and has equal value—because you’re all born from the same thought-energy. This encourages you to send only positive energy to others because the energy you send out eventually flows back to you.
Your Ego Prevents You From Recognizing Your True Nature
In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle expands on the concept of energetic connection by explaining how your ego may block you from appreciating your inherent connection to others. According to him, everyone has a “true being” that connects them to every other living thing on earth through eternal life energy. Like Chopra, Tolle argues that recognition of this connection encourages compassion toward all sentient beings.
However, you also have an ego and its job is to form and protect your identity—from your ego’s perspective, everything you’ve achieved or acquired demonstrates how unique you are and forms the basis of your identity. But this ego-inspired identity is entirely superficial, cloaks your “true being,” and separates you from everyone else. Tolle explains that your ego leads you to misperceive others through a lens of judgment that confuses their superficial identities with who they really are. In other words, your ego only sees and responds to other egos.
The more you act under the influence of your ego, the more superficial your interactions with others become. As a result, you forget your “true being,” fail to recognize it in others, and hinder your ability to feel true empathy or compassion for others.
According to Chopra, the more aligned you feel with the spiritual realm, the more you realize that your external circumstances are just a reflection of the thought-energy you’re sending to the spiritual realm. Therefore, you can change what’s reflected back to you externally by shaping your thought-energy to match what you want. For example, if you want to experience love, think loving thoughts to create more of it in your life. This knowledge grants you internal power that doesn’t rely on other people or things being a certain way.
(Shortform note: The idea that reality is simply a reflection of your thoughts is not new—many self-help practitioners argue that “your thoughts create your reality.” For example, in The Secret, Rhonda Byrne claims that your thoughts work like magnets to attract specific experiences into your life. And, like Chopra, she argues that aligning your attitude with what you want helps overcome feelings of powerlessness in unpleasant situations. She suggests that you can intentionally change your reality by downplaying what you don’t like about your life, feeling grateful for what’s going well, and focusing your thoughts and feelings only on what you do want.)
Inevitably, Chopra argues, you’ll place greater precedence on your awareness of your true nature as a spiritual being than your awareness of your external reality. Realizing that your external reality can only ever match the energy that you send out encourages you to focus more on how you feel internally than external “success.” Consequently, you pay more attention to your overall well-being and the impact you have on other people and your environment. This change in focus inspires you to commit to goals that feel meaningful to you and contributes to a joyful and sustainable feeling of success.
Awareness of Your True Nature Creates Positive Energy
In The Power of Now, Tolle has a different take on how awareness of your “true nature” inspires you to act. According to him, the internal energy you emanate impacts everything around you, including your ability to feel happy. Therefore, instead of explaining how spiritual awareness changes your behaviors and goals, as Chopra does, Tolle focuses on how increased awareness changes your entire outlook on life, improves your internal energy, and positively influences the world around you.
Tolle argues that acting under the influence of your ego creates negative energy that harms your relationships and damages the planet. We previously explained how your ego’s job is to form and protect your identity. All aspects of this identity revolve around external factors, such as your nationality, culture, education, career, relationships, and achievements. You believe that these external factors define you, and when something happens to threaten your identity (for example, losing your job), you feel distress, contaminate the world with your negative energy, and get stuck in a cycle of negativity.
On the other hand, being aware of and acting under the influence of your “true being” creates peaceful energy that promotes harmony in your relationships and restores the environment. Tolle argues that your “true being” doesn’t need things to be a certain way to avoid distress because external forces and circumstances don’t affect it—your “true being” is always at peace. Instead of viewing every interaction and experience as a potential threat to your identity, you view it as something that simply is.
This stance allows you to accept things that happen without feeling the need to fight the situation or coerce others. As a result, you send peaceful and positive energy out into the world and feel inspired to maintain this positive energy.
Chopra claims that you can align yourself with the flow of thought-energy and experience success in all areas of your life by practicing five interrelated methods.
Chopra argues that practicing silent meditation restricts your internal monologue and allows the thought-energy to flow freely through you. He explains that most of your thoughts focus on analyzing, judging, and classifying your experiences. These thoughts cloud your experiences with thoughts of how you think things should be and prevent you from experiencing the flow of energy in the moment.
(Shortform note: Research confirms that practicing stillness through meditation or other mindfulness techniques calms your internal monologue, reduces common symptoms of overthinking such as stress and anxiety, and encourages mental well-being. In Mindfulness in Plain English, Bhante Gunaratana recommends making time for daily mindfulness practice, either in the morning or the evening, and meditating for at least 20 to 20 minutes.)
According to Chopra, your thoughts and feelings are always contributing to the mix of thought-energy that makes up your reality—even when you’re not aware of it. Let’s explore how your thoughts impact your thought-energy and experiences in more detail.
Chopra explains that all matter in the universe is made up of two things: thought-energy and the information carried within this energy. The information within the energy defines the specific details of the object in question. For example, the thought-energy that creates and flows through a frog includes all of the biological needs the frog needs to survive. This information is different from the thought-energy that lives within and flows through a bird.
(Shortform note: This raises the question: Who thought up the frog? Chopra’s belief in an intelligence at the heart of creation (he once openly rejected Darwin’s theory of evolution) has invited significant criticism from scientists and skeptics who perceive his vague descriptions of God’s role in a conscious universe as “pseudoscience.”)
Further, Chopra argues that thought-energy and the information carried within this energy also define each of your experiences. However, your thoughts directly influence the nature of this information—specifically, your motivation for thinking a thought defines the information within your thought-energy and creates experiences that reflect this motivation. Let’s break this down into two parts to explore exactly how this works:
For example, you may think about wanting more money and direct your thought-energy to the topic of money. However, if you’re thinking about money because you’re scared of being poor, this fear shapes the information within your thought-energy. Consequently, your thought-energy creates experiences in your life that fuel your insecurities about money.
Change Your Self-Image Before Attempting to Change Your Thoughts
Chopra’s explanation of how your thoughts create your experiences implies that you can change your life simply by taking control of what you think about and why you think about it. However, this isn’t as easy as it sounds: While you may attempt to change your thoughts when you’re aware of them, the majority of your thoughts take place beneath your awareness in your subconscious mind.
In Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz explains that your subconscious mind learns from your habitual thoughts and feelings to create your self-image. It then influences you to think and behave in ways that reflect this self-image and actively discourages you from thinking or behaving in ways that are inconsistent with your self-image. Maltz goes so far to say that your subconscious mind sabotages your conscious attempts to make your habitual thoughts more positive.
For example, if you habitually think about money because you’re afraid of being poor, you’ve trained your subconscious mind to include poverty as a part of your self-image. As a result, your subconscious mind influences you to automatically think and act in ways that keep you poor. It might influence you to think thoughts that make you feel powerless or encourage you to overspend. Additionally, it may sabotage any attempt you make to increase your income—for example, influencing you to procrastinate about opening a savings account or applying for a job.
Unlike Chopra, Maltz argues that you can’t rely on your thoughts to change your experiences unless you consciously change your self-image and retrain your subconscious mind. He suggests that you can achieve this by regularly visualizing yourself behaving in ways that align with what you want and who you want to be.
Chopra argues that since everything you have and experience is just a reflection of your thought-energy, you can transform your experiences by paying attention to what you think and why you think about it. If you don’t have what you want, consider how the content of your thought-energy prevents you from experiencing these things.
(Shortform note: Like Chopra, many self-help practitioners claim that you just need to focus your thoughts on the right things to improve your life. For example, Louise Hay (You Can Heal Your Life) argues that you can “affirm” what you want to make it come true. For instance, if you want more success in your life, she would suggest that you change the statement “I’m not successful” to “I am successful” and repeat this multiple times a day. Eventually, you’ll come to believe this thought and you’ll automatically think and behave in ways that lead to more success.)
In this section, we’ll explore how letting go of resistant thoughts and the need to control everything encourages inner silence and the flow of positive thought-energy.
According to Chopra, every moment that occurs is as it should be. Your experiences are neither good nor bad; as noted, they’re simply a reflection of your thought-energy. However, unawareness of this fact leads you to misperceive and resist certain experiences. When you resist your experiences, you also resist your connection to the flow of thought-energy and deny your role in creating your experiences.
Examples of resistance include: blaming others for not behaving in ways that you want them to, defending your opinions to convince others to agree with you, worrying about bad things that might happen, or complaining about things because you think they should be different.
By their nature, resistant thoughts influence you to focus more on what you don’t want than on what you do want. Chopra argues that they increase your internal monologue and influence you to think in ways that negatively influence the content of your thought-energy.
(Shortform note: The negative tendencies that Chopra refers to as examples of “resistance” underpin a victim mentality—the belief that bad things always happen to you through no fault of your own. This victim mentality creates feelings of apathy because when you feel like external factors are always trying to thwart you, you lack the motivation to take positive action and change your life. Instead, people with a victim mentality often magnify their problems and their perceived injustices in an attempt to gain attention (comfort, sympathy, reinforcement of their beliefs) from others. The attention they receive from others validates their powerlessness and keeps them from moving forward.)
To calm your resistant thoughts and take control of your thought-energy, Chopra suggests that you focus on learning. He suggests that you ask yourself what your role is in each of your experiences and consider how to align your thought-energy with what you want to experience. The point of asking yourself these questions is not to blame yourself for the things that happen but to proactively seek ways to improve your thought-energy.
(Shortform note: Grant Cordone (The 10X Rule) extends this idea by explaining that you must first take responsibility for your experiences before you can learn from them. Taking total responsibility for everything that happens in your life empowers you to view negative experiences as opportunities for growth. As a result, you proactively seek ways to amend your thoughts and behaviors to prevent problems from reoccurring, and you free up energy to focus on getting what you want. On the other hand, denying responsibility for your experiences encourages a victim mentality: You waste energy blaming others, feel powerless to change your situation, and stay focused on what you don’t want.)
Schools of Thought on Acceptance Versus Resistance
Many different philosophical traditions mirror Chopra’s view that you should accept the present moment for what it is instead of resisting it. However, they all offer different reasons for acceptance:
Stoicism (for example, Meditations) says that your experiences are what the gods and Nature have decreed for you. Since a human can’t hope to resist the will of the gods, it’s better to just accept whatever happens.
Hinduism (for example, the Bhagavad Gita) says that everything you perceive and experience is illusory and that God is the only true reality. Since your experiences are unreal and temporary, you mustn’t let yourself be affected by them.
Buddhism teaches that you should welcome your experiences, but not let them rule you. In other words, your experiences shouldn’t affect your thoughts or your actions. Tara Brach explores this topic from a Buddhist perspective in Radical Acceptance.
Less religious schools of thought talk about the benefits of “living in the moment,” or being fully present instead of lost in thought. For example, Tolle’s The Power of Now teaches that being fully present in each moment is the only way to find happiness, peace, and fulfillment in your life.
Whatever the given reasons, it’s clear that a wide variety of philosophies value accepting your experiences for what they are, instead of trying to judge and resist them.
Another way to tame resistant thoughts is to let go of what you want and accept things as they are. According to Chopra, this will help you overcome a common mindset of resistance: that because things aren’t going a certain way, they’re “wrong.” He explains that holding onto your expectation of how things should be causes you to perceive problems where there are none and limits your ability to accept and benefit from your experiences. On the other hand, letting go of what you want and accepting things the way they are broadens your perspective and allows you to effortlessly experience the best in every interaction and situation.
(Shortform note: By suggesting that you let go of what you want in favor of acceptance, Chopra seems to contradict his earlier advice to intentionally direct your thought-energy toward the things you want. To clarify, he’s not suggesting that you reject what you want. Rather, he’s advising you to rise above your negative thoughts to see the potential benefits of every situation—especially those that don’t align with what you want. Staying focused on these benefits helps you to easily meet any challenges you face as you move forward.)
According to Chopra, each time you choose to respond to your experiences and other people with a positive attitude, looking to benefit yourself and others, you align yourself with the positive flow of thought-energy and dramatically improve your experiences. Specifically, you direct your thought-energy to flow to and create the experiences that you want. He explains that your intention to benefit others naturally curbs your resistant thoughts—instead of seeing situations as problems and focusing on what you don’t want, you see them as opportunities to seek solutions and focus on what you (and others) do want.
Chopra suggests aligning your thought-energy to benefit yourself and others by considering the consequences of your actions. Only act in ways that have a positive impact.
(Shortform note: While considering the consequences of your actions helps you to avoid taking actions that negatively impact others, it’s not so effective at helping you to come up with solutions to your problems. Tony Robbins (Awaken the Giant Within) suggests a practical way to generate these positive solutions: Ask yourself empowering questions. Empowering questions encourage your mind to effortlessly come up with proactive and positive solutions and stay focused on what you want. For example, if you’re in the midst of a disagreement with someone, ask yourself, “What can I do to resolve this situation in a way that makes us both happy?”)
Further, Chopra suggests that you direct your thought-energy to create specific positive things by proactively giving others what you want to receive or experience. Since your experiences always reflect your thought-energy, your positive intentions flow back to you to create happy, beneficial experiences. For example, if you want others to respect you, show them your respect.
(Shortform note: While it’s difficult to prove whether proactively giving others what you want will create similar experiences for you, scientific research confirms that contributing to the wellbeing of others does make you happier. The studies show that when you give (knowledge, assistance, time, or money) with the intention of helping others, you activate the same parts of your brain that are stimulated by pleasurable activities such as eating good food or having great sex.)
Chopra argues that you have innate gifts and talents that you’re meant to contribute to the world and that you should choose goals that align with these natural tendencies because they feel more meaningful and enjoyable to pursue. He claims that aligning your strengths, interests, and positive intentions in this way creates the perfect environment for success.
Chopra notes that directing your natural talents and positive intentions toward goals you enjoy increases your engagement, keeps you focused on what you want to experience, discourages resistant thoughts, and creates an easy and natural momentum. As a result, your thought-energy flows to what you want to experience, reflects your positive energy, and creates experiences that feel meaningful and satisfying. In contrast, goals that don’t align with your natural strengths and interests deplete your energy and move you further away from satisfaction and joy. These goals distract you from what you’re meant to be doing: Instead, you wastefully direct your thought-energy to things that you think you should do.
(Shortform note: According to research in the area of positive psychology, Chopra’s advice to align your goals with your natural inclinations rather than what you think you should do does indeed improve your chances of successfully achieving these goals: You’re more likely to feel motivated and experience an upward emotional spiral (increased feelings of happiness and satisfaction) when you pursue goals that genuinely interest you. This positive mental state allows you to access the best parts of yourself—your unique strengths and talents—and apply them to successfully achieve your goal.)
Why would you choose misaligned goals that can never satisfy you? According to Chopra, it’s because you’re allowing your concerns regarding money, time, or what other people expect you to do to prevent you from discovering your natural inclinations. He suggests that you give yourself permission to discover your natural strengths and learn more about what brings you joy.
Distinguish Between Aligned Goals and Misaligned Goals
The authors of Minimalism offer a more specific explanation for why you would choose misaligned goals based on what you think you should do, rather than your natural talents. They claim that there are four obstructions holding you back from discovering your natural inclinations and interests: identity, status, certainty, and money. For example, you may focus on career goals that drain your energy rather than trying to find goals that align with your interests because your financial security and sense of identity are tied up with your career status.
Become aware of how these obstructions influence you, and distinguish between the goals and activities that satisfy you (aligned) and the ones that don’t (misaligned), by tracking all of the activities you take part in over the next few weeks. Next, reflect on each activity by asking yourself the following questions:
Is this something I want to do or am I fulfilling external expectations?
Do I enjoy this? If so, what’s the most enjoyable aspect of it?
Does this make me feel energized or drained? Motivated or unmotivated?
How can I create opportunities to engage more in the activities that I enjoy?
According to Chopra, when you focus only on what you want to experience, your thought-energy flows to and creates those very things. In this exercise, we’ll determine what you want and how you can focus on it.
What one thing would immediately improve your life experience and make you feel successful? (For example, you might feel successful if you find a satisfying job that pays well.)
What’s your motivation for wanting this thing? (For example, do you genuinely believe that having this thing will bring you joyful success, or do you feel pressured to meet external expectations?)
What are your current thoughts about this thing? Do you expect to get it or do you have doubts? Explain why.
If you’re having doubts, consider the content of your thought-energy—what you’re thinking about and why you’re thinking about it. How could you make your thoughts more positive to encourage the thought-energy to flow? (For example, instead of thinking, “I really need a job because I don’t have money,” you might think, “I’d love to apply my skills to a job I care about and get paid for it.”)
According to Chopra, goals that align with your innate gifts and interests are vital to experiencing satisfaction and success in your life.
Write down two things that you’re naturally good at and enjoy doing. Consider times when you feel engaged in what you’re doing and don’t feel like you have to make an effort. (This could be anything from cooking a meal to creating a spreadsheet.)
Describe what you specifically enjoy about each of these activities. What parts feel the most satisfying? (For example, if you’re good at cooking, you might enjoy creating recipes more than preparing a meal.)
List several ways that you can create more opportunities to focus on these activities. (For example, if you enjoy cooking, you might organize your time so that you can cook every evening or make plans to invite friends over for a home-cooked meal every weekend.)
Write down two ways you can use your natural gifts and interests to benefit others. (For example, you could make homemade meals for a family with a newborn baby, contribute your culinary skills to homeless shelters, or create a blog to share your recipes.)