Office Worker Addiction: Coffee

My Toastmasters mentor always reminds our club that confession is good for the soul. So I’ll say it: I have a coffee addiction.

It’s not like I drink a pot a day—I just like to have one coffee a day. But I really like to have that cup of coffee! And I like to have it in the morning.

I find that my vision isn’t as acute until after I have some coffee. Sometimes even a bowel movement seems elusive until the coffee fix.

My one cup of coffee per day isn’t even a huge cup. It’s just a small cup, but it’s that one cup! Hell, I’ll look forward to the morning’s coffee the evening before I even have it. Are you like that?

As someone with what is labeled an “addictive personality,” I’m very aware of the things I’m addicted to. As a writer and observer, I’m also very aware of what other people are addicted to.

A lot of people are addicted to coffee. Some will freely admit and laugh at their addiction, others will deny it, and for others it doesn’t even register. Coffee is socially acceptable so we don’t see a lot of coffee interventions.

Just because coffee enjoys societal protection, does not mean you should continue to drink it unabated, like an addiction.

A Neo-Tech book I picked up in a used bookstore explained addictions in no uncertain terms:

“Addictions to sugar, drugs, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine not only undercut physical fitness, personal appearance, personality, and health, but will steadily diminish a person’s self-control, self-esteem, and happiness. Such addictions are rampantly common, yet widely unadmitted. Addictions and compulsions also undermine honesty because they constantly require dishonest rationalizations. That dishonesty, in turn, reduces self-esteem, competence, productivity…”

Think about how many things you do each day out of habit or an “it’s always been done this way” attitude. That’s not consciousness—that’s living unconsciously and allowing others (usually “authorities” like the media, government, teachers, friends etc.) to dictate your behavior.

Many, if not most, of our fitness and health problems are in reality self-control problems.

So let’s gain back some control over ourselves and exhibit more consciousness. We’ll start with coffee. Put it down and have some water instead.

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Tagged as: coffee, neo-tech