Read this first. It takes about two minutes. By the end you’ll know if this is for you, or if you should close the tab and get on with your day. Both are fine.
Most people think creativity belongs to a certain kind of person. The painter. The musician. The one with the camera. That isn’t what I mean by it.
Creativity is the part of you that can picture a different life and start building it. The nurse who finds a calmer way through a brutal shift. The accountant who catches the thing that saves the client money nobody else spotted. The parent who keeps a whole house running on almost no sleep. That’s creative capacity. Everybody has it.
Alcohol dulls the exact part of the brain that does that work. The part that imagines, plans, and decides. It doesn’t always announce itself. Sometimes it’s a life that’s a little stuck, a little flat, a little harder than it should be.
And it doesn’t stay in one place. Work, where the focus you used to count on keeps slipping. Health, and a tiredness sleep doesn’t touch. A marriage or a friendship where you’re in the room but not really there. Money. Your patience with your kids. The way your weekends all start to look the same.
Pick any part of your life. If something feels off in it, the drink might be sitting closer to the cause than you think.
I’m Josh. For over twenty years I worked behind a camera and believed alcohol helped me relax, connect, and do good work. It took more than it gave. My mornings. My focus. My trust in myself.
Quitting didn’t make me less creative. It gave me back the part of me I always knew was in there.
That’s what this is about. No labels. No rock bottom. One question: what could your life look like without alcohol in the way?
If that question is worth sitting with, you’re in the right place.
Where to go next
Pick the one that fits where you are.
1. You’re just starting to wonder
You’re curious and you don’t want to commit to anything yet.
Subscribe. It’s free. You’ll get an essay most weeks and a conversation with someone who has been through it.
2. You already think drinking is in your way
You don’t need convincing. You want to see what this actually is before you sign up for anything.
Come to The Clear Hour. Sixty minutes on the first Tuesday of the month, 11am Eastern, on Zoom. We arrive, we work on whatever we’re making, we close. Nothing is sold in it, and you’re welcome whether you’ve stopped drinking or not.
It’s free for subscribers, so if you took step one you’re already in.
3. You're already sober and you want people
The hard part is behind you. The quieter part isn’t. You want a room of people building things, without alcohol in it and without explaining yourself.
The Sober Creative Collective is a small paid membership that meets live each month.
4. You're ready, and you want someone in your corner
You know what’s going on. You want structure, and somebody who has done it.
The Reset is thirty days of one-to-one coaching. Four sixty-minute sessions with support in between, $497, private pay. I take five new clients a month and most people start within two weeks.
Book a free call first. Twenty minutes, no pitch at the end. I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right person, and sometimes the answer is that I’m not.
Want to listen first?
Conversations with people who stopped drinking and found out what was underneath it.
Not for you?
That’s okay. If none of this fits, no hard feelings. Close the tab and get on with your day. I’d rather you spend your time where it actually helps you.
If it does fit, pick your step above and let’s go.
Josh