Why I Stopped Drinking Alcohol 7 Years Ago – No Alcohol For 7 Years

So in the last 7 years I didn’t drink a single drop of alcohol.

Here’s why.

1. You have to know where you’re going to die

Charlie Munger – the billionaire investor – has this one great quote, which says:

“All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I won’t go there.”

Quite a smart quote, right?

This is called inversion thinking. Instead of asking yourself what to do – you ask yourself what not to do.

And it’s pretty clear if you look at the data, that alcohol dependence is pretty much what not to do – and literally where most people die.

According to the data, it seems that alcohol is literally a recipe for misery.

Sure you can drink in moderation, but ask yourself: How thick is that ice truly from moderation to dependence? I know that in hindsight, that ice wasn’t really thick in my case.

2. Intelligent behaviours

In Brian Tracy’s book about goals. On page 255. He wrote something that was so insightful that I’m never going to forget it.

Brian doesn’t define intelligence the conventional way. Instead, he goes further to define intelligent behaviour as something that you do, that is..:

“[…] consistent with achieving the goals that you set for yourself. Each time that you do something that moves you closer toward something that you really want, you are acting intelligently. On the other hand, an unintelligent way of acting is doing things that are not moving you toward your goals, or even worse, moving you away from your goals.”

When it comes to alcohol, hand on heart, is that an intelligent way of acting? Hell no.

Unless your dream in life is to become a hobo – or make your life as miserable as possible – drinking alcohol can not be considered intelligent.

For most people, it’s stupid. So if you have clear goals. If you know what you want out of life. If you have a direction you want to go in – alcohol will always hinder you.

3. So why do people drink alcohol?

So if it’s not intelligent, why do people do it? Here’s 3 reasons why people drink alcohol:

1. Drinking alcohol to forget

Well, that is really not a good reason.

Because as we’ve seen before, alcohol makes you do stupid stuff. So you’re trying to forget, while increasing your chances to do more stupid stuff? Doesn’t make sense.

Almost all of the reasons people drink alcohol, which I’ll outline here, have 2 things in common:

  1. They have zero rational base
  2. They all require a very short-term view of things

Short-term alcohol might help you forget. But long-term, alcohol will give you nothing but problems. Same as with the next point:

2. Drinking to have a good time

Short-term, yes. Long-term: No.

The net quality of my life has improved a 100x since I stopped drinking alcohol. I live wherever I want. I can do whatever I want with whoever I want.

That freedom has come from a culmination of smart choices. And the smart choices I could only make, because I was not drunk.

3. Drinking due to social pressure

Have you ever noticed that we care more about ourselves than we do about other people? But we respect the opinion of others more than our own?

I think every person should come to the point where they care less about what other people think about them. Because nothing is freer than that.