What Cooking Cowhead Taught Me About Goals & How it Can Help you.
Cowhead peppersoup is a Nigerian delicacy made with cowhead! I know…That’s obvious.
Well, have you ever tried to cook cowhead peppersoup?
Whew!
It takes eons to cook 😩
The first time I cooked it, I decided I won’t be doing it again 😂
A close friend had called to say his mum sent him some pieces of cowhead meat & he wanted me to go over so that we’d make peppersoup with the meat. What could be more fun? I didn’t hesitate. I quickly got some spices and from a market close to my house, Chorbe Market, and set out.
I arrived at my friend’s place around 2pm or so. He had already washed the cow head meat and it was on the gas stove already boiling. One hour later, the meat was not ready. Two hours later and still. Three hours later… still 😩. We were getting frustrated.
I knew adding baking soda could make meat tender and I suggested we added some. We did. It didn’t do much.
We learnt on google that you could add Coca-Cola to meat to hasten its cook time. We bought Coca-Cola and added as a last resort. If it didn’t work in an hour, we agreed, we’d call it quits 😂
Eventually, after about 5hrs or so our peppersoup was ready. Because of how stressed and frustrated I was, I didn’t enjoy it one bit. That day I understood why whenever I take too long to finish cooking my mum would say, "kina dafa kan shanu ne?"(Are you cooking cow’s head?)
Remembering that incident reminded me that some goals that seem impossible aren’t impossible, their cook time is just longer. Just as it takes a few minutes to cook noodles and several hours to cook cow head peppersoup, it will take you a short period to achieve somethings but others will require more time and patience to accomplish.
In essence, "Most goals are possible—but you need to be realistic about timing". Don’t try to cook cowhead peppersoup with the same time you’ll cook noodles using the same cooking stove. You’ll end up frustrated. When attempts at achieving something becomes frustrating, you’ll end up stressed and procrastinate on the goal. Many goals die at this point.
That doesn’t have to happen to you. Be realistic with the time frame you give yourself to accomplish your goals. That’s such an empowering principle that will help you accomplish more of your goals.
