Let me start this with, I am not a coffee expert. I’ve never been a barista or worked at a coffee shop yet. It’s one of those fantasies and who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to make you a latte with the fancy art.
But I do love a good cup of coffee and savor every last drop.
Only recently, did I make the plunge to start making pourover coffee with a gooseneck kettle and my Chemex. It feels like an art while I’m also being a scientist (the Chemex was created by a chemist after all – it’s like a big beaker from the lab).
And every morning, while my gooseneck kettle is making all sorts of noise as it’s warming up, I sit and wait for it to reach the right temperature. To pass the time, since I used to always set an alarm on my coffee pot and have the coffee ready for me when I walk down to the kitchen, I’ve started a new practice in the last couple weeks.
Everyone talks about the importance of gratitude and goal-setting, so I’m making an effort to spend my first 5-10 minutes while I’m making my coffee to sit and write 5 things I’m grateful for every morning. When I first read about this practice, it seemed pretty obvious or unnecessary as I feel like I’m a thankful person. But seriously, two weeks in, I find that writing down what I’m grateful for helps me set my perspective for the day.
The next thing I write down are 8-10 goals and dreams I have for the future. I’ve been writing them down as if they’ve already happened as that is a proven mental shift while you’re goal setting. This is another practice that at first sounded a little cheesy or unnecessary, yet I find myself during the day repeating these mantras in my life during the moments I need to be reminded of where I’m headed.
For example, every morning I write that “I choose healthy over junk.” This sounds simple and may not even make sense to you. But it reminds me that when I want to grab the Starburst jellybeans I have hidden in my desk drawer, I decide not to. Or when I could just stay inside working, I go for a run or walk because I’m being intentional about being healthy. (for the record, I’ve ran more in the last 3 weeks than I have since before baby #2 and it feels amazing!)
I also write “I’m a patient and present mom.” This one is hard. It’s so easy to be impatient with yet another mess, another argument, another refusal to put on shoes. And it’s so easy to not be fully present with my children. Maybe I didn’t finish all of my work for the day or maybe it’s easier to just scroll Instagram or Facebook while I’m sitting with the kids. I’m working on being fully present and leaving the phone in the other room (unless I need to grab a quick picture or video of these fleeting days.)
The other 8 things I write every morning are goals and big dreams that I believe are going to happen in our lives. I’ve always been a dreamer since the time I was a little girl and thankfully life has, in many ways, been better than the plans I imagined as a child.
A verse that often comes to mind as I think of the future is Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
All this to say, there’s an art to making coffee. There’s an art to being grateful and intentional with your time to go after your dreams. Drink up and go, follow your dreams, take the risks and the necessary steps now to make them happen.
And sometimes, like coffee, the best dreams take a while to percolate, but taste so much better and are worth the wait!