Today is 1 year without drinking alcohol.
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This post is for whoever needs it today. If you’ve been struggling with drinking… even if it’s moderate drinking… I wrote this for you.
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Nobody posts photos of themselves hungover on social media. But trust me, there are some hangovers taking place out there...
How do I know?
I used to hide inside during my hangover days...
There were so many days where I’d have to lay around, sleeping or ordering Door Dash to my place in order to cure and mend the massive headache I had from “the good time” I couldn’t remember from the night before.
But I’ll tell you this… I sure wasn’t broadcasting to everyone how crappy I was feeling.
My self confidence was so low.
I more than likely did something the night before when I was drinking that I wished I hadn’t done or I said something to someone that came back on me the next day. Or maybe I missed an appointment and had to come up with some lame excuse in order to not appear in public.
Every single little negative outcome over the course of days, weeks, and years were actually adding up. They were adding up to wasted time, wasted energy, wasted opportunities, wasted growth, and only resulted in a wasted me.
Crazy, huh? Ever say to someone “man, I was wasted last night!”
Yeah… ‘wasted’ is the right word. A waste chance for life.
I never realized how much time I was wasting until I made the decision to stop drinking.
And… just a reminder…
I never considered myself as having a “drinking problem”.
I mean, a problem?
Nah… not me. Right?
Yes… It was a problem.
The truth is I couldn’t tell I had a problem until I quit drinking.
And spoiler alert… my life became 1000% better once I stopped drinking.
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Without drinking:
365 days without a hang over. 365 days of building my new life. 365 days of uninterrupted growth. 365 days of nothing but accomplishments. 365 days of building relationships, remembering conversations, getting physically active, learning healthy stress and anxiety therapies and techniques, setting and achieving goals, strengthening my spiritual relationship with Christ, serving others, manifesting my dreams into realities … the list goes on and on…
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But I can confidently say this… there have been 0 days of set backs. 0 days of regrets. 0 days of wastefulness. 0 days of any kind of shame, embarrassment or nonsense.
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Has quitting drinking been easy?
At first, the hardest part was telling everyone I knew I was done drinking. But once everyone had been told, all I had to do was keep my word and not drink.
Did you lose friends?
I didn’t lose any friends. If anything, I have more of me to be better friends with my friends now.
Did life become boring?
No. In fact, not drinking actually forced me to become creative and stop going to places just to “have drinks”. And through that, I have discovered so many cool places around my area. Life is an adventure of exploration now (I’ve always wanted this for my life… success).
How can you go out anymore if you don’t drink?
First of all, I don’t care if my friends or family members drink. I’ve learned that I just like who I am sober. My friends and family benefit having sober me around vs drinking me. It’s a win win for us all. Plus, they always have a DD through me. So, to answer this question, I order non alcoholic drinks and have a great time just like I did when I used to drink… accept now my memory is better and I don’t feel bad.
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It’s been so worth it that I have no reason to ever go back to drinking.
You see, once you see for yourself what I have seen, you get addicted to growth. You become obsessed with using your time for productivity. You love feeling more and more confident.
You actually begin to love yourself.
And one of the biggest things…
You become a genuine person.
You aren’t faking who you are to people anymore.
What do I mean by this? Well, here… Think about this…
How many times have you gone out, made a mistake that you’d want no one to know about and then went out and acted like it never happened?
I used to do this all the time. And I mean, literally I’d go out, act like a fool, and go to work and nobody would know I was acting a fool less than 12 hrs before.
Whether they knew or not, the biggest thing is… I knew. You know when you were acting like a fool.
And that pain adds up. It impacts your confidence. It adds to your stress and anxiety.
For me, I ran into this problem a lot when I’d drink. Get a few drinks in me, and I’d have the courage to say whatever came to my mind. The loose lips sink ships type of nonsense.
It wasn’t good. I don’t miss acting like a fool.
That’s how drinking is a problem for me. I have realized that my type of personality just doesn’t work well with drinking. I actually think I’m too thoughtful to be able to drink. Isn’t that wild?
But drinking could be a totally different problem for you. Or, you could be blessed with it not being a problem at all…
But as the days go on, I wonder sometimes…
How many people say it’s not a problem for them…
…but it is?
And I’m here to admit to you that I was one of those people who would say that, too. Because I was too embarrassed and afraid to admit the truth.
That I had a problem.
And at the end of the day, I was really only doing one huge thing to myself…
I was allowing the problem to continue being a problem.
And guess what?
That’s a problem.
But the good news to anyone who has been on the fence with drinking is this…
All you have to do is quit drinking.
And I can actually promise you this…
You don’t need it. And your life will be better.
Period.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading.
Feel free to share this post for anyone who might need to read it.
I appreciate you all.
Much love,
Daniel.
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