JoeSoChallenges Update -- No Caffeine!

Joe's last Cup o' Joe

Holy smokes, I just realized tomorrow I must stop drinking caffeine for 30 days! Actually, I did not just realize that. I have, in fact, had my eye on this moment all month...no, all year...dreading it. Every digital page I turned during my 30+ minutes of daily reading moved me one moment closer to this decaffeinated month. I had no problem whatsoever going alcohol-free in January. I had even less of a problem reading for 30 minutes every day in February. I relished it. I relished both of those challenges. 

To succeed in doing what I refer to as a "negative" challenge, you must replace whatever habit you intend to "negate." When I say "negative" challenge, I mean trying to NOT do something -- e.g., no alcohol for a month; quitting smoking; or giving up processed sugar. You can't just stop drinking beer. You must consider what reward drinking the beer gives you, and find something else to do instead of drinking the beer that rewards you in the same way. I discovered two drinking triggers during that month -- boredom and socializing. For the "boredom drinking," I found a simple substitute would suffice: coffee, soda, weed, etc. For the "social drinking," I discovered that I could enjoy the same social scene without having alcohol. I met friends for happy hour three times, went to two parties, and out for dinner dates a handful of times without touching a drop of booze. The cue and the reward stayed the same (in this case, "socializing" represented both the cue and the reward), but the routine (drink alcohol) changed (drink ginger ale or smoke herb). 

sad face :-(

Anyway, what did I want to say? Oh right, I call that a negative challenge. A "positive" challenge means trying to add a new habit, create a new habit, start doing something you've always wanted to do, rather than replacing or dropping an old habit. So I made sure to do a positive challenge for my second month -- 30 minutes of reading for pleasure. 

Now as I head into the third monthly challenge I decided to package a negative and a positive challenge together -- to drop one habit and put something else in its place. So I intend to both consume no caffeine and do a bit of stretching or exercise in the morning instead. So the cue will remain the same -- waking up in the morning and thinking boy I need some coffee. The reward stays the same -- a feeling of stimulation and wakefulness. But what comes between the cue and the reward -- the routine -- will change. When that cue goes off -- waking up and wanting coffee -- I'll hop on the exercise bike or do some yoga instead of brewing a pot. This new routine -- getting my blood flowing in the morning -- will hopefully yield the same reward -- feeling stimulated.

As a side note, I've struggled to address the moral, academic, physiological, and intensely personal debate over whether or not to drink decaf coffee during this month. Regardless, carry on!

One more side note! For posterity let me list the reading material I devoured this month...

• The Power of Habit
• Man in the Dark
• Black Hawk Down
• My Father's Dragon
• Coraline
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• The Little Prince (English version)
• George Carlin's Brain Droppings

Probably something else...