As you may or may not know, I love drinking. Whether it’s making myself a fruity mixed drink, polishing off beers or downing an entire bottle of $11 wine in one sitting, I’m a big fan of booze. I used to drink almost every day – not in a sad Hank Moody way…
….but in a “my life and friends are amazing, I do what I want” way. I didn’t get fired over drinking, but my termination led me to reflect on my habits, my goals and who I was becoming as a person. And I realized that as great as I am, I have some vices that need to be addressed and rectified if I’m ever going to meet my potential.
Being that I’m currently unemployed, I have no real concept of time. I know it’s been about a month since I got fired. The few days following my termination, I went on what some might call a bender. Anybody that would call it that is being dramatic. I just went out two week nights in a row and drank until I got tired, as any normal person with hurt feelings would.
But since then, I haven’t touched alcohol during the week and barely have on the weekends. I’ve been out maybe twice in the last month, which is not like me at all. Admittedly, it hasn’t been entirely by choice. All my dependable going out friends are either in New York or DC, and as I still don’t have a steady flow of income, I’m not comfortable wasting hundreds of dollars on food, drinks, tips and ubers every weekend.
What has been entirely by choice is cutting off my weekday drinking. I’ll admit, at first it was kind of hard. I had gotten so used to unwinding at the end of my day with a drink that it was somewhat of a routine. I had to actively remind myself that the wine cabinet and beer stash were off limits on days that didn’t start with S or F.
It’s only been a few weeks, and I could very easily be playing myself, but I’m starting to notice some pounds dropping. I have been eating less (on most days) but I don’t think my diet alone is responsible for the results I’ve recently noticed. I have also noticed that I’ve felt idle and bored a lot since drastically reducing my alcohol intake, which showed me just how much of my schedule revolved around drinking.
I’ve been using this newfound time on my hands to primarily continue my job search and to work on my blog. I have been working tirelessly producing content, researching and refining my strategies, and trying to take this talent and passion of mine to the next level. And if we’re being real, I owe this focus entirely to abstaining from alcohol during the week.
This month following getting fired has been an emotional roller coaster. One day I’m on top of the world, feeling empowered by all of the freedom and power I have to pursue my own ambitions and the next I feel like a complete joke, going nowhere in life and trapped by my own failure.
I’ll never be the person pretending that booze isn’t one of the greatest gifts on God’s green earth or that there aren’t Tuesdays where I feel like I could really use a cold one. But I think that for now this quasi-sobriety is for the best. I don’t know if it’s something I’ll try to make permanent, but I can already see positive changes and have reached a clearer understanding of both my short and long term goals.
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what do you think?