War & Peace + 90 lattes: The Power of Good Habits

I walked in to my second home and the smell was familiar.  The people were too. The stickiness on the ground was comforting although I don’t usually like the two-step my shoes take with sticky floors.  I was walking into my morning office - Peets.

I ordered my latte and the barista welcomed me with her smile. “Hey Pepper...how’s it going?” I love my routine.  I meandered to MY seat. Everyone in the coffee shop tacitly agrees that it is MY seat. When someone else sits there, everyone seems a little off kilter. It’s as if we’ve seen a couple together who isn’t supposed to be.

I looked over at Paul holding in his hand an overwhelmingly heavy symbol of my old low self esteem.  I walked over chuckling. “Whatcha reading this time, Paul?” He smiled and boasted his bravery. “This is the mother of all mothers.”  I could feel my ninth grade teacher’s voice scrape the back of my heart. I remembered her words: “You are the worst student I have ever had.”  (Why in the world did I allow her venom to still penetrate my day?)

“Whoa, I said.”  “You’ve really done it this time."

“Have you read it, Lisa?”  “No, no. I don’t think I could EVER do that,” I replied.  “Yes YOU could. “One latte at a time,” he emphatically insisted.  “This one is about 90 lattes worth.” My eyes lit up. Paul, this is exactly what I teach my clients.  You have a Big Hairy Goal (thanks Jeanna for those words) and you can’t imagine completing it.  I coach them by saying, “One step at a time...progress not perfection...better done than perfect.” 

It struck me then the powerful familiar wisdom of the moment: Read as many pages as you can -  one latte at a time.

What’s worth 90 lattes? 

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