The Missing Ingredient: Home Cooked Relationships in a Fast Food World

By Mike Bullock

Do you feel like something’s missing from your life? Do you crave something more? If you’re like most people, there’s always something else your chasing: a better job, car, house or the latest gadget. But none of those bring the fulfillment we need to live rewarding lives. 

Author Mike Bullock wrestled with this conc

• Language: English
• Publisher: Runemaster Studios, Inc
• Release date: Jan 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781640853508

Book preview

"Before Mike told me about the idea for The Missing Ingredient, I told him his next book would be his best book, little did I realize at the time how true that statement would be. Over the last few decades I’ve had a front row seat to far too many unhealthy relationships. Seeing the damage that happens when this ingredient is missing in families, marriages, or any sort of personal connection for that matter, breaks my heart. If you’re in a relationship of any kind that needs healing and repair, this book is for you."

—Bil Cornelius, I Dare You To Change

Mike has a huge heart for relationships and that sincerity and need to help underpins The Missing Ingredient. Through this book, he helps us identify the gaps, quantify the cause, detail a cure, and establish an action plan to take our relationships from bad to good, good to great and beyond. If you’re not experiencing the best in personal interactions, whether it’s corporate, community, family or interpersonal, this book holds the ingredient to supercharge all your relationships.

—Jason Young, The Comeback Effect

A cake without sugar might look delicious, but one bite will tell you otherwise. In life, we’ve failed to follow the oldest recipe for success. Mike helps us put back the missing ingredient" for lasting happiness. The Missing Ingredient, should be on everyone’s bookshelf if they want lasting success."

—Nanette O’Neal, A Doorway Back to Forever

"Imagination and love are the two powerful elements from which God spoke all of creation into being; and, sadly, they are the two commodities that are being slowly siphoned out of our culture and community today. In his book, The Missing Ingredient: Home-Cooked Relationships In A Fast Food World, Mike Bullock offers us a poignant description of the desperate state of relationships, and the domino effect this lack has had on society as a whole. But there is hope! The ‘missing ingredient’ becomes the small spark to light the fire that yearns to burn inside each of us. The word love may sound trite, but it is the very thing that will bring restoration back to our hearts and world."

—Alisa Hope Wagner, Eve of Awakening

We live in a world that has forgotten how to have healthy, love-based relationships. Mike Bullock takes us on a journey to explore the impact that poor relationships have on the world and our own personal lives, then shares how we can find and incorporate that missing ingredient back into our own personal interactions. The result is a fulfilled life that makes an impact on the world around you.

—Jerry Dugan, Beyond The Rut

From The Hacking the Darkness Series

The Missing Ingredient

Home-Cooked Relationships In A Fast Food World

Mike Bullock

The Missing Ingredient

Copyright © 2018 Mike Bullock

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Published by Author Academy Elite

P.O. Box 43, Powell, OH 43035

www.AuthorAcademyElite.com

All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Paperback: 978-1-64085-348-5

Hardback: 978-1-64085-349-2

Ebook: 978-1-64085-350-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018907592

Dedication

To the loving memory of Greg Rohlinger. Thank you for showing me how to add the missing ingredient back into my life. Your impact on who I am forever changed my path, that of my lovely wife Angie and our son Zach, whom we wouldn’t even know without you. As long as we draw breath, you will be dearly missed.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction: The Change Engine of Chocolate Cake

Part 1: Evidence of Absence

Chapter 1 What is Love? (Baby, Don’t Hurt Me)

Chapter 2 If It Bleeds It Reads

Chapter 3 National Blackout

Chapter 4 Local Eclipse

Chapter 5 A Flicker Within

Part 2: Filling the Void

Chapter 6 Now What?

Chapter 7 The Heart’s Four Chambers

Chapter 8 Do You Feel What’s Missing?

Chapter 9 Never Enough

Part 3: Be the Light

Chapter 10 The Goal of Great Relationships

Chapter 11 Discovering the G.O.A.L. of the S.O.U.L.

Chapter 12 It’s never too late

Chapter 13 Commit to Hacking the Darkness and Changing the Game

Afterword

Appendix

Notes

Foreword

When I first met Mr. Mike Bullock, the fire of imagination in his eyes caught my attention and before long we laid the groundwork for what has become a long-lasting friendship based on common interests and inspirational respect. During the 15 years I’ve known him, he has consistently demonstrated a hard-working, creative acumen necessary for success in a wide variety of writing fields from journalism to graphic novels, genre fiction to personal growth. There are honestly times I wonder what can’t this cat write?

Having read his graphic novel series LIONS, TIGERS and BEARS and a number of his other works, the tome you hold in your hands is just the tip of his creative iceberg. But, like a tip, it’s also a point. And as with all points, it provides a place to start, an entry way if you will. And through this door, Mike ushers us into a new perspective that allows insight to things we don’t all clearly see. This book encapsulates one of those starting points that guides us to one of life’s ah ha! moments. The sort of thing that often brings with it a paradigm shift which elevates our thinking and enhances our lives.

Mike is highly dedicated and wildly visual in his ability to bring depth and moral gravitas to any given project. Over the years I have seen him grow as a writer, a creator and world-builder to the point where he has become a universal storyteller of sorts. And it is my opinion that his considerable skill in this area is unparalleled. While he may not be a household name yet, the spotlight that comes with that sort of fame should certainly shine on his body of work.

Of particular note is that not only is Mike a consummate creative professional, but he’s more than willing to share his knowledge with others as well. This selfless characteristic is oft times lacking in our world and is refreshing to see in such a fine gentleman. Not only does he have a creative zeal and unrelenting desire to bring new ideas and worlds to life, the passion of his imagination marches shoulder-to-shoulder with his desire to share these things with anyone and everyone he meets.

If you’re struggling with a relationship of any type, at any level, from work to family to friends or other members of a community you belong to, I suggest reading this book and applying the information within.

Mike didn’t write this just to put a feather in his cap, but to put one in yours. That’s the kind of thing I’ve watched him do over and over again. And, anything he writes has my highest recommendation.

Sincerely,

Kevin Grevioux

Underworld movie franchise creator and co-star

Introduction

The Change Engine of Chocolate Cake

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

—John the Apostle

For many of us, just the words chocolate and cake trigger warm feelings of happiness and satisfaction. If you’re a fan of either, those two words together got your mouth watering–in fact, you might even be thinking about putting this book down right now so you can grab some chocolatey goodness. If that’s you, go ahead, we’ll wait for you. If not, you can keep reading. For those who went for a snack, once you’re back you can join us.

The feeling those words trigger in many of us boils down to what we often refer to as love. That comforting, contented, warm and fuzzy happiness that washes all our cares away for a short time. If you’re not a fan of chocolate or cake, that’s ok too, obviously you’re intelligent enough to get the idea. Is that all it takes to make us feel love? Maybe … but probably not. At least not the deep, long-lasting variety.

The making of anything worth your effort requires a solid plan, a blueprint, or at least detailed instructions. For the purposes of this analogy, let’s call it a recipe. Trying to follow the plan without all the necessary ingredients simply won’t bring the desired outcome. I have to admit I’m a free-spirit, seat-of-the-pants kind of guy, but even I know there are times when you have to follow the recipe