8 Life Lessons from Coffee Farmers

As discussed in a previous blog post, coffee farmers tend to be happy people. No one is immune to mental health struggles and bad days, but statistically, the mental health struggles at the farms are low compared to the developing world where loneliness, depression, and anxiety are high. Here are ten tips on how coffee farmers approach life:

• Count Your Blessings
• Is the glass half full or half empty? Either way, thank God there is a glass! Life is often about what we make of all the ups and downs, but through it all it is important to keep in mind every blessing. 

• Take Care of Your Loved Ones
• In the developed world, self-reliance is an admirable quality, but the toughness of the country and the fact that farmers live in vulnerable circumstances, the need to watch for each other’s backs is quite tangible. 

• Take Care of Your Possessions 
• There is a fine balance between being materialistic and simply taking care of things. The latter implies that you understand the value of things. What they contribute to your life in their functionality and the fact that they have a purpose. Broken things should be mended and if it cannot be fixed, there’s no purpose to having such things anymore. Hoarding at farms is a big no-no as these places are prime examples of industriousness and efficiency. 

• Take Pride in Your Work
• The job of the farmers is quite simple and well structured. In many ways it is ordinary. Once the farmers have the technique down (which they often master as kids), their role does not change much. This fact does not make their job any less important or unfulfilling. They take pride in their beans. They know their beans are recognized for their region and the quality of their product carries recognition. How couldn’t you take pride in that.

• Limit Your Distractions
• We live in such a buzz-filled world. We often multitask as if boredom was a disease to be avoided. But a world with less distractions is often a very peaceful world. I often go on walks with podcasts or music in my earbuds and while this is a mild-approach to multitasking, it made me think of how farmers don’t even do that. They spend up to 12 hours in the field hand-picking coffee beans in complete silence. They may sing and talk to other farmers, but there’s no outside distractions. 

• Organize Your Life
• YouTube is swamped with morning routines, evening routines, and many other organizational motivations. There’s a reason why they are so popular. We are seeking order and structure in our lives as it actually allows more freedoms. Having to make fewer decisions surrounding “at what time should I wake up and what should I do first?” allows us to move through our day with greater ease. This also applies to macro aspects of our lives. Having order in our relationships results in better relationships where people feel loved, cared for, and valued. 

• Be Trustworthy and Reliable
• Who do you count on? When you live in the vulnerability of remote coffee farms, the answer to this question is quite important. The base of the strong knit community of the farm is the sense of watching for each other’s backs and genuinely caring for each other’s well being. 

• Recognize True Gold. 
• Just by looking at Netflix’s top 10 and current new releases, we know that we live in the age of con artists and financial fraud. We are more and more gullible which leaves us vulnerable to those who want to take advantage of us. The simplicity of the country life and the understanding of our work’s worth grounds coffee farmers on the true value of things, people, and life. 

I hope you enjoy these reminders! While life may sometimes seem hard and complicated, going back to the basics is a good refresher to start all over or simply take the new days with a better attitude.