What do you want to cook?

The self-assessment stage:

Before starting to cook, we need to assess what tools and ingredients we have at our disposal.

What ingredients do you have… Look through your own pantry and fridge and identify what you have and if anything is close to or past its' expiration date.
- In terms of career...what skills, abilities and strengths do you have? Make a list of what you have at your disposal - both your 'hard', or technical skills as well as all of the 'soft', people skills that you can put to use.
Is what you found enough to cook something, or do you need to buy additional ingredients?
- What can you do with the inventory of skills and abilities that you have identified? Do they correlate well with what you would like to do next, or will you need to get additional training, learn new skills, or in some other way upgrade your knowledge to get to where you want to go?
Which of the ingredients that you identified do you enjoy cooking with and eating the most? What are your favourite ingredients to use, or dishes to prepare and eat?
- Do you have skills that you are especially proud of? Are there things that you particularly love to do?...Activities that you gravitate to, or that make you lose track of time?
Which of these ingredients do you want to use, but sparingly? Those that can add complexity to a dish in small amounts, but can overpower the dish (or can cause an allergic reaction) when used with a heavy hand?
- In terms of career, these are the things that you can do, but don't necessarily enjoy. Things that you wouldn't want to be the main focus of the role.
Do you have all of the ingredients that you need to make your dish of choice?
- Are there skills, tools, or experiences that you know you will need to master in order to succeed in the area you want to go into, but don't have yet?

Macaroons. I love them, but if I have too many, they give me a tooth-ache and I end up experiencing a sugar crash.