I know what you are thinking. Tony, that is none of your business! I totally agree and that’s why this post will not be about drug or alcohol use. What it is about are states of mind. Those times when you haven’t taken anything to alter your state of mind, yet you may not be thinking straight.

I was recently having coffee with my friend, Kyle Gillette, and we were talking about reactions in challenging situations and he compared it to being sober vs. being intoxicated. It immediately struck me as a great way to check in with yourself on whether you are in the proper state of mind to respond to a situation. Let’s use driving as an example. Pretend you are leaving your local watering hole and you feel a little buzzed. In this situation you and everyone else knows that driving is a poor choice. Now pretend you are driving in traffic and you get cut off. Your fight or flight response goes crazy and since you are in a huge metal battering ram you choose fight. In this situation are you sober? Most likely not, you might honk your horn, flash your lights, or even race ahead so you can cut them off when in reality pulling over and sobering up would be the best choice.

This can transfer to all areas of life. When your child won’t put on their shoes because it is critical that they cut a piece of string into five pieces, after 20 minutes of this are you sober? When your laborer dumps the wheelbarrow at the dump, are you sober? When your dog gets sick on the living room floor, are you sober? When your tenant shoves a potato down the garbage disposal, are you sober? When the stock market drops 600 points, are you sober? When you get a robot call from a local number for the 100^th time, are you sober? When you….., are you sober?

You get the point and you can fill in the blank how ever you want. The point is when faced with an angering, frustrating, exciting, scary, etc. are you in a good state of mind to make a decision. Next time you have a decision to make or are reacting to situation ask yourself if you are sober before moving forward.

I’m hoping to reach more people in 2019 so if you are enjoying the blog please share it with your friends and family. Thanks! 

Happy New Year!