I used to think the most exhausting part of my job was the constant decision-making.

The more senior you become, the more decisions land on your desk.

Some affect your team.

Some affect your customers.

Some affect the business.

And in manufacturing, engineering, and operations, those decisions can have real consequences.

The decision-making at work wasn’t actually the problem.

What was draining me was the decision-making around my drinking.

Every day there seemed to be another internal negotiation.

“Will I have a drink tonight?”

“Just one or two?”

“I’ll take a night off tomorrow.”

“I’ve had a stressful day, I deserve it.”

Then the next morning:

“Why did I have more than I planned?”

“I’ll do better tonight.”

It was a cycle that repeated itself for years.

The trap was that I believed alcohol was helping me recover from the demands of the day.

I thought it was helping me switch off.

I thought it was restoring my energy.

I thought it was helping me cope.

In reality, it wasn’t helping me in any way.

It wasn’t restoring my energy.

It wasn’t resting my mind.

It wasn’t improving my sleep.

It wasn’t helping me eat a balanced diet.

It wasn’t encouraging me to exercise.

It wasn’t making me a better leader, husband, father, or colleague.

It was simply adding another layer of fatigue to a life that was already demanding enough.

What I eventually realised was that I wasn’t just carrying the weight of decisions at work.

I was carrying the weight of endless decisions about alcohol too.

The surprising thing?

When I stopped drinking, I didn’t suddenly have fewer decisions to make at work.

I just had more energy, clarity, and focus to make them.

The decision fatigue reduced because I had removed an entire category of decisions from my life.

Nearly 18 months alcohol-free, one of the biggest benefits hasn’t been what I’ve given up.

It’s been what I’ve gained:

✅ More mental bandwidth
✅ Better sleep
✅ More energy
✅ Better health
✅ Greater consistency
✅ Better performance

As leaders, we spend our days solving problems and making decisions.

The last thing we need is a habit that’s quietly draining the very resource we’re relying on most.

Our mental energy.

Have you ever noticed how much energy a habit consumes before you decide to change it?