by Thomas Detert - Certified High Performance Coach, Profound Impact Coach

Alcohol didn’t ruin my life.
It just made me tolerate one that I should have outgrown.

Nothing was “wrong” with my drinking.
That was the problem.

Alcohol, like many vices and distractions, has a quiet talent.

It dulls the very signals that tell us it’s time to change. We tolerate and suffer instead.

Pain.
Dissatisfaction.
Stress.
Urgency.

These aren’t flaws.
They’re information.

They are the internal signals that tell us something in our life or work needs attention. Alcohol doesn’t erase those signals — it softens them just enough that we stop responding.

And when you stop responding, nothing changes.

For years, my drinking fit neatly into the category of acceptable.

I wasn’t reckless.
I wasn’t out of control.
I was functioning. Successful, even.

Which made it very easy to justify restarting — again and again — after previous attempts to quit.

I’ve quit and restarted more times than I care to count.

What finally became clear is this:

Alcohol wasn’t destroying my life.
It was pausing it.

It allowed me to tolerate things I otherwise wouldn’t have:

• Misalignment in my work
• Drift in my personal standards
• Avoidance of difficult decisions
• Delayed action on changes I knew were necessary

By numbing discomfort, alcohol also numbed momentum.

Nothing collapsed.
Nothing exploded.

I simply stayed stuck longer than I should have.

This time, I stopped for good.

Not because of guilt.
Not because of a dramatic bottom.

But because the difference became undeniable.

Without alcohol, I am:

Sharper.
Clearer.
More energized.
More motivated.

More importantly, I am no longer avoiding the areas of my life and business that need honest attention.

I’m being contemplative where I used to distract myself.
Decisive where I used to delay.
Tactical where I used to rationalize.

I’m finally addressing shortcomings I kept circling — but never fully confronting — both personally and professionally.

And this is the part that matters most to me.

I didn’t just remove alcohol.

I reclaimed authorship.

Alcohol had quietly taken something from me — not my health, not my reputation — but my self-direction. My willingness to sit with discomfort long enough for it to do its job.

Now the signals are loud again.

And that’s a good thing.

Because discomfort, when you stop numbing it, becomes clarity.

And clarity demands action.

I didn’t quit drinking to become better.

I quit to become myself again.

Clearer.
More decisive.
More honest about what needs to change — and finally willing to change it.

This isn’t about alcohol.

It’s about what happens when you stop muting the part of you that knows it’s time to lead your own life.

There’s no pitch here.
No invitation to book a call.
No nudge to join a newsletter.

If this article resonated, my hope is that it becomes a catalyst, not a conversion point.

Not for you to agree with me.
Not even for you to quit drinking.

But for you to notice where you may be numbing discomfort instead of listening to it — and to take your own action, whatever that looks like.

If you’re curious to explore this topic further, a book that influenced my thinking is CLEAR: The Only Neuroscience-Based Method for High Achievers to Quit Drinking Without Willpower, Rehab or AA. It approaches change through clarity and identity, not shame or force.

No pressure.
No prescriptions.

Just an invitation to stop muting the signal — and see what becomes possible when you respond to it.

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