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Each day, many of us start the day by firing up the coffee maker to brew our morning coffee. While we drink it, we may check email, scroll through social media, or just stare out the window. But in Coffee Self-Talk: 5 Minutes a Day to Start Living Your Magical Life, author Kristen Helmstetter suggests a way to change your life through your morning coffee break.
This short guide explains the author’s daily motivational practice. The idea is pretty simple: each morning, she sits down with a cup of coffee and performs a self-talk script that she’s written for herself. Depending on the day, or on her current needs, she could be focusing on her health, her fitness, her finances, her career, her relationships, or a combination of all of it—and, at the end of the book, she offers a number of sample scripts to get readers started, with the intention of building a better, stronger, more successful life.
While running through her morning routine, the author explains why this practice is so valuable—and so effective, too. After all, many studies through the years have shown that if we can reprogram our brains to see ourselves as healthy, strong, confident, and successful, we will become what we believe. But in describing her morning practices, the author doesn’t seem to have a whole lot to say about it. Much of this short book feels repetitive—the same explanations and suggestions shared in different ways. And after the initial introduction, it feels like the author was challenged to fill the pages with new material.
The style of the book, meanwhile, isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for positive motivation, you’ll definitely find that here. The author presents her practices in the most relentlessly upbeat kind of way—and, for some readers, that’s just the encouragement it’ll take to inspire them to make a change. Other readers, however, might struggle with the super-sunny, slang-heavy tone. Much of the book sounds like it was written by an over-caffeinated teenage cheerleader who thinks that everything is absolutely “amaze-balls.” To the author, everything is easy-peasy—a no-brainer—and, at times, you’ll imagine her rolling her eyes in response to any objection. Of course you’re sitting down with a cup of coffee every morning—and, if not, obviously you’ll just get up earlier. And of course you’re going to commit to performing this script with gusto each morning—preferably with an Oscar-worthy score playing in the background. After a while, the tone is a lot to take—and even if you’re in complete agreement with the author’s ideas and practices, you might still have a hard time making it to the end of the book.
The ideas found in Coffee Self-Talk are definitely solid and backed by research. But while the information here may convince you that there are valuable benefits to starting a self-talk routine, the author’s casual, bubbly, and almost pushy style might end up turning you off to the practice.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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