If you make bad hot chocolate, don't drink it

If you spend 20 minutes making what you thought might be a really cool take on hot chocolate, and use too much xanthan gum and it ends up way too thick to be considered a beverage…don’t consume it even though you feel some sort of dissonance because you invested time in making it.

And if you make something using processed ingredients because it’s cold outside and you really want hot chocolate and you “wasted” 20 minutes before learning one way to not make hot chocolate, and you take two sips and you realize this stuff is crap, spit it out. And don’t drink anymore.

Find a recipe that works, and follow it attentively. Make the best hot chocolate you can find. And don’t settle for anything less.

If Gorden Ramsay doesn’t like a dish, he’s unapologetic about spitting it out, even on television. Maybe you and I should adopt a similar approach to both food and to every other decision we make throughout our day.

When you’ve invested your time or money or attention in something you want to be great and it isn’t, when you’re tempted to take shortcuts, when you find yourself making a decision simply because it’s your routine (whether it’s making hot cocoa on snow days or whatever), maybe it’s wise to spit it out.

To pause. To reconsider your goals, values, and intentions. And to make a decision from there.