4 Things I've Learned From A Year of Sobriety

If you’re considering ditching drinking read this first

I want to set the record straight before I begin. I’m not anti-alcohol or planning to never have a drink again. I enjoy an ice-cold cocktail while sunbathing or sitting on the beach while on holiday. By the time this is published, I will have had my first drink since August 2020.

I believe there is a societal norm around drinking culture. It is expected of you as a person in their 20s to be binge drinking, getting drunk and partying every weekend. I can’t speak of other countries but this seems to be the case in the UK and Scotland.

I won’t deny the fact that I adhered to drinking culture when I was in my late teens and early years of my 20s. The first night you get really drunk and your parents see is almost viewed as a right of passage. Very rarely does this lead to the individual reflecting on the experience and choosing not to repeat it. More often than not it becomes an experience that happens again and again.

Alcohol is a drug. It is classified as a central nervous system depressant. This is often experienced as the anxious feeling when waking up after a night of heavy drinking. In Scotland, this is commonly known as “the fear”.

My personal journey began in 2016 when I decided to reduce the amount I was drinking to lose weight. It worked. I got myself down to a healthy level of body fat and changed my lifestyle. I started taking working out and my health seriously. Unsurprisingly, I felt better and continued to monitor my consumption and only drink when I really wanted to.

But what about peer pressure? I gave in multiple times at the expense of not wanting to be labelled as “that boring guy”. If you want to move away from drinking and aren’t supported by your friends then they probably aren’t real friends. Sounds extreme however their best interests are not your best interests. If everything they want to do revolves around drinking then I believe it's time to find new like-minded people.

Fast-forward to 2020. I had successfully completed numerous 2–3 months of not drinking to further my progress in the gym and my cognitive ability to get me through university. When the first lockdown hit, I felt a weight being lifted from my shoulders as I had now had no social pressure on me. At this point, I was still finding myself to be nervous when telling people I wasn’t drinking at events - even though I had no reason to. I had found myself to be judged quite critically when this has happened.

I’ve never been someone who drinks in the house in the evenings so I wasn’t motivated or had any desire to drink while the world stopped. I had time to look inwards, reflecting on my thoughts and feelings, then decide who I wanted to be when the world began to open up.

I don’t possess the desire or motivation to drink that often. I am a morning person and intentionally sabotaging that time of the day feels counterintuitive towards my beliefs.

Health became the number 1 priority. It still is. So I decided to go for at least a year of not drinking. Here are the 4 main lessons I learned from that time.

1. Your energy levels increase

This is huge. If you are a professional, creator, entrepreneur or anyone with aspirations you wish to achieve then this is addressed to you. You’ll have more energy and an increased boost each morning.

Over time you feel more and more refreshed each day due to improved sleep, especially if you care a lot about your sleep hygiene and habits.

This upturn in energy will allow you to positively impact those around you.

2. The longer you go the less you actually want to drink

I got to around the 9-month mark when I first noticed this. There was no motivation for me to consider drinking. I had become very focused on what and who really mattered to me.

The habit of NOT drinking became so strong that the thought never crossed my mind.

I did feel towards the end, I had learned everything I had to for now from this stint of no booze.

3. Prioritising health boosts every other aspect of life

It’s no surprise really. When you give up alcohol you save three things according to Modern Wisdom podcast host Chris Williamson:

Time, money and calories.

The first two are fairly understandable. You don’t spend half the next day lying in bed with a hangover or spend money thoughtless that could otherwise be invested into something more fruitful — an online course or coaching, for example.

Savings calories is a big one. After grinding hard during the week, adhering to your calories and macros, then blowing it all to pieces with takeaway food at the weekend will cancel out any progress you’ve made during the week.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s an art in finding balance in this. Having a single drink or glass of wine with dinner seemed fairly pointless to me. I instead would rather opt for the extra bit of garlic bread or dessert.

4. You stop giving a f*** about people who don’t understand it

If someone can’t understand why you choose to give up alcohol then they’re not being empathetic. They are often blinded by their own insecurities. Or, they aren’t simply willing to open their mind to what you wish to achieve.

Realistically, when you start prioritising yourself you’ll begin to block out the negative viewpoints. You are the only person who can make you happy.

This may come across as selfish but it leaves you in a much better position to have a positive impact on the people in your life.

You want to be able to give them the best version of you.

I hope this article has given you some insight into what being sober is actually like, the mindset behind it and whether this is something you’d like to try. Substituting out alcohol for 3–6 month periods in your life vastly accelerates the progress you’re making towards your goals, whether that be professional or personal.

Thanks for reading my article. I would greatly appreciate it if you share this with anyone who might find this useful.

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Have a great day,

Josh