How My Coffee Consumption Taught Me Self-Control

Glen Binger
4 min readMar 31, 2018

Confession: I’m addicted to coffee.

To the taste, to the cognitive rush it brings — even to the emotional attachment I’ve subconsciously linked to the writing life. I like to think I’m an honest man and I can own up to reality.

I try to rationalize with myself. Everyone has a vice. Everyone has weakness and strength. Everyone has a superpower. A secret ingredient.

I mean, I can control myself. I’m not helpless to saying no. But I do love a good cup of coffee when sitting down to read and write. I enjoy the cup I have before 7am teaching duties start.

However, I must also admit, this paints me with little bit of self-doubt. I don’t know if should look at it this way. Is my coffee consumption — our collective coffee consumption — a bad thing? Is it something we should be worried about?

I’ve been pondering this a lot lately; whether or not it should be considered a positive or a negative. I’ve read countless studies that support both sides to that debate, from health perspectives to the lens of leisure, and I’ve had many conversations with everyone from professional roasters to baristas to hobbyists to the average American coffee-drinker.

I’ve come to the realization that trying to analyze it like this doesn’t work.

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