Is your drinking stealing from your future self?

Don't let drinking be the sneaky future thief!

What if the choices you make around drinking today are quietly stealing from the person you desire to become?

Most of us make short term decisions without much thought for how alcohol affects our future. We act on convenience, push through, do what everyone else is doing. Rarely stopping to ask what the cumulative effect of those choices might actually look like ten or twenty years from now.

Twenty years ago if you had asked me what my most valuable assets were, I would have said my house, money in the bank, superannuation. The tangible things.

Today I would say my health. Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. As long as I have my health everything else is workable. If I'm physically healthy I can do the things I love. If I have my mental and emotional health I can be resilient when problems arise, navigate difficulty without the fight or flight response taking over, and be genuinely present for the people around me. If push came to shove and money became an issue, good health means I can go back to work and sort it out.

Alcohol sits directly in the path of all of that.

It's easy to drink when it becomes ingrained. It becomes the thing you do, when you do the things. A short term decision made without much thought.

But consider the future. In a few hours, if you're out drinking, how are you getting home? Is your judgement impaired enough that you'd get in the car regardless? A poor outcome there is a crash, an injury, a DUI. Maybe you get home unscathed, many of us did, many times. But if something goes wrong, what are you stealing from your future self? A large fine, loss of licence, jail time, financial compensation to a victim's family. What does your life look like then?

In a few years, what are the effects on your long term health? Drinking tends to grow over time. Regular drinkers rarely find their consumption naturally decreasing. The moderation attempts begin, the rules get made and broken, the trust in yourself erodes. What then?

We know alcohol is a carcinogen. We know what it does to the liver over time. We know what happens to a brain that spends years soaked in it.

If you are drinking, more than likely you are not fully available for your family. Your attention is elsewhere.

You grab a beer from the fridge when you get home from work. You wave the kids off while you settle in front of the news to relax. Mum joins you, it's been a long day for her too. Both parents become unavailable.

Your kids notice. They may not be able to articulate it, but they are forming something in their subconscious from what they observe. That you chose drinking over them.

The message that lands, quietly and repeatedly, is this.

"I am not enough."

Consider what that does to a child's future self. How it shapes their relationships, their need for approval, their choice of partner. Whether they drift away from you as they get older because you were never quite present enough to build something real with them.

Late nights at the pub on the way home from work. Too rough the next morning to ask them about their day. Hangovers that write off weekends. Kids sports missed, recitals missed, family time missed.

What are they telling themselves each time?

"I am not enough."

Our future selves. Ninety nine percent of the time we don't give it a thought. It's only when we remove alcohol from the picture that we get the space to reflect on what it has actually cost us, and what it might cost us still.

The relationships that need rebuilding. The trust that needs earning back. The availability that was missing for longer than we'd like to admit.

Reconnecting takes time. But it starts with a single decision to stop stealing from the person you desire to become.

Am I making choices today that serve my future self? Or am I pushing through the discomfort, keeping alcohol close, and hoping it works out?

It's worth sitting with that question.

If you're ready to look at what alcohol is actually costing you, the Men's Guide to Drinking Less is a good place to start. Eight learning modules built around understanding, not willpower. Or if you'd prefer a conversation first, book a Free Strategy Call below and we'll work out where you're at.

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