3 insidious ways alcohol causes you to fail at life (quit now)
I’m less than a month away from a full year without alcohol, and to say the difference between July 2022 James and July 2023 James is stark would be a massive understatement.
Recently, I told you about three accomplishments I’m deeply proud I’ve achieved since I gave booze the boot.
I’m especially proud because there’s absolutely zero chance I would have accomplished them if I were still getting at least a little drunk almost every single night (and frequently more than a little drunk).
The life I’ve managed to build for myself over the past 11 months, that is…
… simply could not exist on a timeline where I kept drinking every night.
That’s because alcohol is really good at sneakily causing you to fail at life.
It slowly attacks your ability to craft the existence you want without you fully realizing what’s going on while it’s happening.
How good is it at sapping your amazing potential?
Let me count the ways.
It makes you hopelessly negative
It’s hard to feel optimistic about your future when you always feel like trash.
It’s also hard to see a bright future when looking through the gauze of a daily drinking habit.
Prior to quitting alcohol 11 months ago, that gauze was so thick I couldn’t even see the next day.
I honestly felt so hopeless about my future.
When I was young, I thought I had so much potential. I thought I was going to do something special.
And here I was, a middle-aged guy with a boring job who drank too much and whose only goal for each day is to get through it.
This was actually my rock bottom.
No DUI with criminal charges. No family leaving me.
It was the point I realized: “If I don’t change something right now, I’m going to be a loser for the rest of my life.”
It destroys your mental resiliency
The reason it took me so long to escape the alcohol treadmill is that booze slowly chips away at your mental resiliency until there’s virtually none left.
Take, for example, some of the challenges that come with starting a new business.
Winston Churchill famously said that “Success consists of going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm”.
But that s**t is hard.
When I was drinking every day, my mental resiliency was virtually nil.
Start a new website you think is going to be a hit but it draws only crickets right away? Write some articles that completely get ignored?
These kinds of early-stage challenges can apply to any kind of business.
When I’d hit those barriers in my drinking days, my only response to not finding massive success immediately was to quit.
I’d start a new website and then be too tired or distracted by drinking and Netflix to actually fill it with content.
I’d write an article that I thought thousands of people would like and it would barely draw double digits, so I wouldn’t write another one for two weeks.
And then I’d usually have a drink because my attitude was always, “this sucks, nothing is going to work, I’m worthless.”
My default response to any issue was: “I surrender.”
Now?
Now when I’m faced with a problem or fall flat on my face trying something new, I get up, dust myself off, and ask, “OK, what’s the solution here?”
And I’ll continue to work at it until I find one.
You simply cannot fail if you choose not to quit.
It saps your creativity
If you don’t have energy, you can’t have creativity — and creativity is a major key to both financial success and happiness.
In fact, as I wrote in this piece, I think creativity is one of the two main contributors to your overall happiness.
To me, the closest approximation to the high I used to get from alcohol is to be able to look at something I made and be like, “hey, that’s neat — I made that! I should try making other things!”
Right now, I get that from reaching a new exercise milestone or writing an article that people like or making a YouTube video, which I had no idea how to do just 11 months ago.
Back during one of the COVID lockdowns and a small spell I was able to stop drinking, it was art — drawing specifically.
I would draw something, then come back to it later and be like, “Wow, I can’t believe I did that!”
Happiness is found in creativity, process, and progress.
Not in a bottle of booze.
Change it now
Quitting alcohol is hard for many reasons — the hardest one being the anxiety and resistance at the start.
And it can be discouraging to think that, after wasting so much time, all your good days are behind you.
Well, I’m here to tell you they’re not.
And if you push through the toughest withdrawal phase, a better life is closer than you think.
Just 12 months ago, I had not a shred of hope that my life would be anything but a disappointment.
I quit alcohol at 41 and I’ve completely turned my entire existence around since.
Other great writers on here like Diana Leotta cover the benefits of ditching booze after retirement.
There are countless stories of famous celebrities who reached their artistic peaks after quitting in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.
So why not start your comeback today?
Hey, thanks for reading all the way to the end! If you enjoyed this piece, please give it a clap or two and let me know in the comments!
