Life is full of challenges - and in 2020 we’ve been shown how life can throw multiple challenges at us.

In previous years where there has been more stability, I’ve been throwing challenges at myself.

In 2017, I had enough of Facebook randomising my timeline to suit them - so I quit.

In the past year, I set myself a 365-day challenge to increase my exercise (given gyms were closed for 6 weeks in Adelaide, Australia - I’ve still got a few weeks to go).

But this week marks my 2-year anniversary of being alcohol free.

Why?

When I’m out at lunch or dinner, and I order a non-alcoholic beverage, this is how the conversation goes:

• “You’re not drinking tonight?”

• “Nope. I’ve actually quit drinking.”

• “Why?”

I then provide a timeline of how in the second half of 2018 I was incredibly busy with work and home life that at one point I realised I had not drank for a couple of weeks.

Then Dry July was upon us (which I did) and then I set myself a challenge to go 365 consecutive days without drinking. It’s bittersweet that in October of that year, we were invited to Oktoberfest (‘Weisn’ for my German friends) and I succumbed to a ‘deal’ of having a Radler (half beer, half lemonade - that Radler is in the photo above).

It was not a deal that I won. I had to start my challenge all over again. And I was determined, because I didn’t want to start all over again.

This meant awkward moments where a local beer was bought for me by colleagues in Hong Kong (and the beer sat untouched on the table all night), etc., but I was determined this time.

Most importantly, that year was a big experiment.

It was a social experiment. It was a time that I learned more about myself. And it was a year of paying more attention to alcohol statistics and research.

In October 2019, I made it to day 365.

On that day I posted my achievement on LinkedIn - and tagged a few people I’d taken notice of in the ‘making a change to one’s drinking’ field.

One person responded …

This Naked Mind

Annie Grace was the only person who replied to my post - and we struck up a conversation.

This led to the offer of being interviewed as a part of Annie’s podcast series.

At the end of that interview, Annie spoke of the work she was doing to help people make a change to their drinking, and how she was collecting data to see if it was actually working.

But she did not have anyone who could ‘do something with that data’.

I now work for Annie as a researcher. And I’m energised by this research, and I will discover ways to help more people make a change to their drinking …

What’s Your Sleep IQ?

And speaking of Annie Grace interviewing me - this week the tables were turned.

A new part of the WINK menu is a podcast series, where I get to interview someone and test their Sleep IQ.

And our first guest is Annie Grace.

How did she do answering 10 questions about sleep? Find out by clicking the image below.

And while you’re at our Youtube channel, please subscribe - we’ve got a lot more content coming!

Sleep well!

• Prof Mike Gradisar