I have had revelation, on mind altering substances.
Whilst my initial dividends from sobriety were plentiful, I still failed to achieve the productivity that I had envisaged would come flowing from that overdue change to my body and mind.
It is true, my motivation to strive and ‘own the day’ exploded, no longer being held back by toxicity and the monster in my mind, perpetually dragging me down with terrible self criticism. However, I still struggle with focus, tending to follow the shinny instead of the small handful of tasks that will yield the highest return for my time.
The epiphany was.. Covfefe
I love coffee, but I fear it does not love me. As a stimulant, what is not to like?
Well, I have for a while intellectually understood coffee steepens the discount rate that I have for future rewards. Longer-term, more rewarding outcomes should foster work towards those outcomes, but we tend to discount the value of those outcomes the further away in time they land. In behavioural economics, this is called Hyperbolic Discounting.
As stated, that rate at which we discount the future is steepened by caffeine (and most narcotics).
It is time for me to honestly acknowledge this, and ditch coffee too.
Stopping drinking fixed my lack of Motivation & Bad thoughts.
I need to ditch caffeine to sharpen my Focus & Prioritise, to own the day.