🥃 After 4 months of no drinking, that first sip of Maker's was delicious

I hadn’t drank for four months until last night. Oh man, that Maker’s was yummy.

But this morning I was feeling it and I remembered why I haven’t drank for the last quarter of the year.

“When I don’t drink, I wake up at a 7 automatically, which is an acceptably consistent score to start each day.” - friend

Drinking drops that score automatically. Going out for a drink or two results in a lower day-launch number and over the last four months I couldn’t sacrifice my morning flow.

To be optimally productive everyday I need to be sitting down at a coffee shop at 8am to start my ideal flow state.

Drinking infringes on that pattern which results in a drastic impact on my daily productivity. Like this morning!

Waking up was difficult, not necessarily because I had too much of a hangover but it was enough to start my day at a 5.8/10. I was slow to get out of bed, took a long shower, ended up scrolling through social media for too long and being indecisive about my next steps, all due to my slightly excessive alcohol consumption last night.

So by cutting out alcohol I’m able to maximize each and every morning. Pairing that with leaving my phone in the car allows me to consistently run as fast as I can every morning.

The other benefit of of not drinking is the financial aspect. This summer while I was traveling I spent way too much on drinking.

Not drinking during travels would be my number one suggestion for how to travel cheaply. I think that one choice could save you about 30%. So not drinking at home is also a big money saver.

One of the other big results I saw from not drinking was in my health. Coming back from traveling I started running every morning and doing a very basic bodyweight workout. It’s a super simple routine that has resulted in great physical benefits with little extra effort. Not drinking allows me to keep that consistency every morning.

What about socializing without drinking?

I don’t really “go out” so not drinking didn’t affect my night life but what it did do is help me “call it early”.

The 10:30-ish threshold when drinkers start getting too drink-y is a great time to bail and still make it home in time for an early night.

Now is the decision : to stop again or nah?

The hard part is that I cracked the seal.

I operate best at absolutes, meaning I’m either all in or not at all, so it’s easier to say, “I’m not drinking at all” than to say, “I’m not drinking tonight”

And once I break that commitment it gets hard to get back on track. It would be really easy for me to justify sliding back into drinking more often now that I crossed that threshold.

But luckily there’s some upcoming natural markers like an out of town Christmas trip, New Years and Dry January.

One of the ideas I’ve been considering is “not drinking at home”. If I keep the line of only drinking out of town then it could help me regulate consumption patterns.

We’ll see what happens over the next month and starting 2019 but most likely I’m getting back on the wagon 🥃🚫