#429 Use whatever it takes

Whenever you set out to establish a new habit, there’s often a nagging thought at the back of your mind wondering, “When will you quit this time?”

But the naysayer in your head that has had free reign for all these years can’t be silenced.

They can only be proven wrong.

“You expect me to quit? Watch me.”

“Say whatever you want; I am showing up today.”

Tiny Trust Builders, day after day, until the naysayer admits, “I was wrong. You’re not that person anymore.”

You’ve spent your lifetime bumping into the limits of what you deem possible.

And you’ve also spent your lifetime overcoming the seemingly impossible.

Sit. Crawl. Walk. Speak. Read. Find love. Get over loss and heartbreak. Travel. Invent. Create. Learn. Write.

Overcoming the seemingly impossible is what makes you you.

Once you accept that, the question shifts from, “What’s possible for me?” to, “What are you overcoming next?”

I can worry a thousand times until my worries come true.

I can envision my dreams a thousand times until my dreams come true.

Not because of the act of worrying or the dreaming itself.

But because my worries or dreams will incite different present actions taking me down different paths.

Whatever future I focus on a thousand times, I’ll be drawn towards.

Choose wisely.

In working-class cafés in Napoli, people who experienced good luck often buy a coffee, then another one “pending”, which the barista can serve to anyone at his own discretion: a caffè sospeso.

A symbol of social trust and solidarity. Or, in the hands of marketeers and big coffee chains, a tool for increasing sales.

Regardless, it’s an act minimal enough to not to turn the donor into a hero, and small enough not to affect the receiver’s self-worth.

If such accessible acts of generosity make the donor feel good, and the receiver of a free coffee too…

And if it’s something almost everyone can do, not just billionaire philanthropists…

It’s an initiative worth spreading. Maybe not only for coffee.