Your Worst Behavior Does Not Define You
If you let it, you’ll never live up to your potential
Years ago, I was in a bad place in my life. I was on a career path that I hated. I compensated by staying up way too late at night at the bars. Also, I had a taste for a particular brand of rotgut cinnamon whiskey, a whiskey whose makers cut every corner in its manufacture. I’d do 3 to 5 shots of it a day.
As a result, I tended to fall asleep sitting at the bar a lot.
It was a running joke for a while. People would take pictures.
Finally, I realized the whiskey was ruining my life. I quit it. It took about four days for it to get totally out of my system — I later learned it shared an ingredient with the antifreeze people put in their cars — but once it was gone, I immediately started feeling better. The lethargy was gone. I stopped procrastinating on important projects I needed to get done.
Also around that time, I switched to a different career path, one that allowed considerably more flexibility in my schedule. I went from getting 4 to 6 hours sleep a night to 7 to 9 hours. I went from waking up to the unpleasant beeping of an alarm clock to awakening peacefully and naturally.
I still go out to bars, but I haven’t fallen asleep in one in quite some time.
