\u201cWhen you quit drinking you stop waiting.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aCaroline Knapp<\/p>\n
On December 8th, with a tequila hangover, I decided to put the bottle down for 30 days of sobriety. Which meant I was sober over Christmas. Which means I was sober over New Years Eve.<\/p>\n
With 21 days of sobriety under my belt, this is the longest I\u2019ve gone without alcohol since I drank my first wine cooler at 17 years old. That sentence alone is enough to shock me into clearing out my liquor cabinet.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not claiming addiction, but my relationship with alcohol was not getting me any closer to the person I wanted to be. Hangovers made me lazy and complacent. I would put off work until the headache went away, and I would use my weekends as an emotional crutch to the frustration and stress I felt during the workweek.<\/p>\n
I used alcohol to avoid dealing with difficult emotions. I used it as a crutch when I got stuck creatively. It was the thing I went to when the words or ideas stopped flowing, or when the real work of being an entrepreneur began. When I kicked off my 30 days, I wrote an article about unfollowing any alcohol-centric Instagram accounts (you can read the article here<\/a>). I can say this has definitely helped me in being successful at staying sober this time around.<\/p>\n Being sober has been life changing, here\u2019s 21 reasons why.<\/p>\n 1. I\u2019m getting quality sleep<\/p>\n 2. I\u2019m more aware of my body<\/p>\n 3. I\u2019m hydrated, and it shows<\/p>\n 4. Speaking of energy. . .<\/p>\n 5. My diet has improved<\/p>\n 6. I\u2019m saving money<\/p>\n 7. I\u2019ve realized people and moments are more important than the booze you pair it with<\/p>\n This is a funny one. Alcohol is joyous, right? Well. . .in my case, no. Yes, there are joyous occasions in which we celebrate with alcohol, but if you take the booze away, it\u2019s still a celebration. I\u2019ve had a hard time feeling nostalgic for moments I\u2019ve celebrated or cemented with alcohol. Like popping that bottle of champagne on a snowmobile after saying \u2018I-do\u2019 to my husband the day we got married. But I\u2019ve realized in being sober that I\u2019m more grateful for the moment and the people I\u2019m celebrating with than the alcohol I\u2019m using to celebrate with. Being sober in joyous moments has made me more present, more attentive, gentler and more patient.<\/p>\n 8. I have more time (and energy) to do things that bring me joy (not just a buzz)<\/p>\n When you don\u2019t spend your nights at happy hour, or your weekend mornings catching a buzz at brunch, you have a lot more free time to cultivate new hobbies, or habits that bring you actual fulfillment and joy. Instead of chasing a buzz, I\u2019m spending my time on personal growth, cultivating a healthy marriage, experiencing life, trying new things, and diving deeper into my creativity.<\/p>\n 9. My shame around alcohol has disappeared<\/p>\n When I\u2019d wake up with a hangover, my shame would pound just as hard as my head. I would lay in bed thinking \u201creal entrepreneurs don\u2019t wake up with hangovers all the time, they would never waste time like this.\u201d It\u2019s no secret that the most successful entrepreneurs capitalize on being peak performers. You can\u2019t access peak states when you feel like shit or when your brain is foggy. I knew alcohol was keeping me from performing at my best, and so I developed a pretty intense shame around drinking. But, now that I\u2019m not drinking, this shame has also disappeared.<\/p>\n 10. Sobriety has convinced me I can do hard things<\/p>\n I\u2019ve tried to \u2018get sober,\u2019 drink less, drink once a week, only have one drink per night, etc., for the last couple of years. I chased my tail for a long time and would slip easily off the wagon at the first whiff of a party or glass of Malbec. My constant failure made me believe that I was in fact a failure. It\u2019s what Benjamin Hardy calls self-signaling<\/a>. Through my behavior of constantly failing at a seemingly simple task (not drinking alcohol), I was convincing myself that I was in fact a failure incapable of sticking to anything I set my mind to. Now that I\u2019ve stuck to it, I\u2019m rewriting my subconscious and convincing myself that I am in fact capable of doing hard things, of finishing what I start, of being successful. This effect is spilling over into other areas of my life as well, like in my writing career.<\/p>\n 11. I\u2019m learning to be me again<\/p>\n Alcohol does this funny thing where it lowers your inhibitions and makes us more confident in being or acting a certain way. When I stopped drinking, and went to my first party, I realized how awkward I felt, how boring and introverted I was sober. But in shedding this crutch, I\u2019ve realized a lot of my life I\u2019ve been living from a guarded and inauthentic place. I wasn\u2019t letting the world see who I am, and I was stifling my personality because it felt too scary to be my vulnerable, messy, human self. Now that I\u2019ve removed the alcohol crutch, I\u2019m discovering who I am behind the wine and tequila. It\u2019s difficult and incredible. It feels uncomfortable, but it\u2019s the most sure I\u2019ve ever felt.<\/p>\n 12. I\u2019m learning a lot of fun stuff<\/p>\n 13. I\u2019m learning to speak my truth<\/p>\n 14. When I speak my truth, my relationships improve<\/p>\n 15. I remember things now<\/p>\n Like the details, the small things that make up this beautiful life. Details like the constant hum of crickets, birds and geckos in the jungle. The small things, like the metronome tempo of the ocean breaking against the beach. All sorts of beautiful things that alcohol blends together into nothingness, those are the things I remember and live for, and I\u2019m grateful to experience them every day.<\/p>\n 16. I feel healthier<\/p>\n Alcohol is a toxin, as soon as you drink it, your body has to do the difficult work of cleansing your body of it. Which means while your body is busy flushing the toxins out, it\u2019s not healing. Just knowing I haven\u2019t put alcohol into my body makes me feel healthier, like I\u2019m doing my beautiful body a huge favor.<\/p>\n 17. Sobriety has put me ahead of the curve<\/p>\n 18. My healthy lifestyle isn\u2019t being immediately thrown in the trash by boozing<\/p>\n 19. Sobriety has made me realize how distracted I was<\/p>\n 20. Sobriety has proved to me that my identity isn\u2019t fixed.<\/p>\n 21. I wake up feeling great<\/p>\n The older I get, the worse my hangovers are. One glass of wine would give me a hangover, the shame-scaries, and make me sleepy by noon. Now I wake up at 5am with energy, purpose and a clear head. It\u2019s the best way to start the day.<\/p>\n Take Action! Your writing career begins and ends with your lifestyle, environment and mindset. I created a free training, which distills my years of writing struggle, so you can create a life and environment that supports your writing dreams, without wasting years of your life.<\/p>\n