Back in the days when I had roommates, and further back when I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I noticed how pitiful most guys are about food (I didn’t observe female habits in this regard); essentially, they all know protein is important but they somehow don’t grasp that solely ingesting protein will starve you to death. Likewise, they couldn’t fathom spending “so much” on normal food in addition to all the spent on protein-heavy foods and powders.

Hilarious. Ironic. Ignorant. Sad.

Usually they’d watch how well I ate and voice jealousy. Other times they’d vent frustration that they were always hungry in spite of all the protein they eat. I had to laugh and laugh and laugh. Now and again, however, I thought…hmm…maybe we should make meals together: I don’t have to do all the work, and they don’t literally starve to death while I laugh.

“And it’ll be cheaper” I’d tell myself, not realizing how determined they were to continue the over-proteined diet they were on.

Ha. We’d buy our first week or two of groceries, and the total would average to a little more than my normal amount. This I expected: the first week or two we bought groceries that would last across a couple or more weeks. That was intentional.

We ate well, and each meal was about on par with my traditional prices per meal.

Then we’d shop again and my roommates would mourn the fact that their meals were not mostly protein. So we’d buy lots of protein in spite of all my efforts to talk them out of it (I use healthy amounts of protein in my meals, if not slightly more than that). Meals would go protein-heavy and fruits and vegetables would fall back out.

In spite of all my warnings that this method of cooking was detrimental and a waste of money, they were confused that meal prices were still soaring. Soon thereafter we’d stop and it was good riddance in my eyes.

The reason I share this is not only to dis on arrogant ignorance or praise myself (ironic how my meals worked perfectly when I led the way but exploded when others overruled me), but because I think we often do similar things with large swaths of our lives.

We see what someone else has or does. We grow jealous. We want what they have, and at first we’re willing to do what they did (not talking about imitation that overrides uniqueness), but after a short while we think we can one-up their methods. And it all comes tumbling down.

How stupid is it to think we can make lemonade from limes or pie from cake? Sometimes if you want something, there are acts you have to take/make regardless of your personality. Sometimes nothing else will get you the results you want, but only you can decide what actions you take.

You cannot achieve the outcome you want by following the path you want. Almost always (if not in fact always), the only way to get what you want is to follow the path that leads there. Often there are multiple ways to the end result, but we can’t simply think we can do anything we want and get whatever result we want.

Bleu cheese is not made by over-cooking spaghetti.

Starvation isn’t prevented by drinking water.