A contemplation on coffee and having a glass of self-control instead
By Jason Henkel, Chief Balance Engineer
For those of you who know me, you've already heard my decades old ranting on my relationship with caffeine (via morning coffee). I have more rules around coffee drinking than Carter had liver pills, but the sad part is, I only follow all of those "optimization" rules about 50% of the time. Here's a list of some of those rules just so you can have a giggle:
-No coffee after 9 am
-One cup max
-Never drink coffee more than two days in a row
-Never drink coffee more than three days per week
-Organic, presently grounded, high quality coffee only (no old moldy grounds from two Christmas's ago - hello mom's coffee closet!)
-…and there are more, but this has become embarrassing enough. Where I come from, they are rolling their eyes and saying, "It's just a cup of coffee Jason. Try to breathe through it (full sarcastic tone with smirk)… and by the way, we're taking your man card."
The truth is, for my body/brain chemistry, coffee instantly makes me the Renaissance man. And wow, does it feel amazing to be at those heights! It's an actual state-altering drug for me. I'm pretty much switched on most mornings without coffee/caffeine from about 5:30am onwards (let's call it 8.5 out of 10), but coffee pops me into a real overdrive of connectome delight (15 out of 10!). I also thoroughly enjoy the process around making it in the mornings, especially the fresh smell of hand ground coffee beans. Ohhh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! The downside is the payment afterwards, primarily for me in the form of adrenal fatigue and foggy pre-frontal performance. The after-effects make deep meditation (and therefore the benefits of meditation) not possible. In my world, caffeine really is borrowing cognitive energy from the future to be paid back with interest quite soon after. Over the years I started making rules to deal with it because the high was so damn fun, but the devious (often times subtle but all encompassing) post-high crashes are real and diminish my experience of quality life in the following days. All of this about coffee. Bizarre I know. You'd think we were talking about bumping cocaine here, but this is my reality when it comes to coffee.
So, that's a little context and background. The reason I wrote this article is because in my personal productivity trainings with folks all around the world, the meta-skill of "energy management" is discussed with the same importance as "time management." I check in on peoples' coffee habits/dependency and relationship. I was surprised to find out that a lot of people have quite a bit of internal dialogue going on around their own coffee habits. Many feel that the habit is driving them and wish for a change. They seek the high or use it to get to 'par' as a crutch. On the other hand, many honestly just enjoy everything about it and don't see a problem (and God bless those folks; nothing wrong with that!). For those on the war path to quit coffee, I found Alex Becker's words pretty true. (Brace yourself, Alex feeds on overly sensitive folk. He kids around A LOT, but if you can breathe through all that, he's quite intelligent). Here he is on Why I'll NEVER Drink Caffeine Again.
THE ACTION:
For those who feel in some core part of their being that coffee is at least in part or wholly an unwanted dependency or an issue on the energy management front, I invite you to try this little exercise/experiment just once per week.
Select one morning where you pour a glass of water instead of coffee (pause…deer in headlight look). And while pouring that glass of water, actually name that water "glass of self-control." Be with it. Stare at that glass through all the internal dialogue to dump it and go get "the good stuff." Observe the urge to join the social norm and bodily and neurochemical habit as you second by second hold to a healthier choice. Try the same with a cup of water after work or when you get home from a hard day rather than a glass of alcohol. Try the same in the face of any habit you know isn't serving your highest self.
In the far east, they have a name for the energy that builds in a person when they go into the face of strong negative energy and stay the course - when you take the full headwind and continue forward on a path that you know is more aligned with what is natural and healthy. We all have the knowledge to decipher and the ability to choose.
My wish for you is that you build this particular energy reserve from time to time. Make those contributions. You just might be surprised what happens in your life when that energy hits a tipping point and momentum unleashes. Start with caffeine or alcohol.
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Productively Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team