Day #21 of 21… Mission Accomplished!

I am proud to say that I have accomplished my 21 day mission. My goal was to go without any brain candy or soul slurry for 21 days, and I made it. When compared to all accomplishments by humans across the ages, it meant absolutely nothing. However, compared to what the average fly does in a lifetime, it was really something. I think.

That said, here are a few thoughts as I celebrate the occasion.

A great man once said, ‘If a man does his best, what else is there?’. And that’s what I am celebrating tonight. I did my best. I could not have done it better. So that’s my new theme… doing my best. I think it may be easy to forget that doing our best is very hard work. It’s being in the top 5%. It’s having a fucking blast.

Wow; what a great 21 days. The most amazing thing about this adventure was all the unexpected realizations I experienced. My reason for doing this was initially for my health. The real surprise. However, was how it impacted my state-of-mind.

This pause has been very healthy. I recommend it to everyone. Really.

Okay, all my cards on the table. Tonight, after midnight (in fact, at precisely 12:00:01AM EST) I flew to Amsterdam, Holland and smoked some Indonesian Bink-Chai grass, drank a few glasses of Wolf Blass wine and had a beer. For a night-cap I smuggled down a shot of Black Velvet.

I actually had a great time during my 21 days; probably one of the most important times of my life. That’s just a feeling I have; I can’t explain it yet.

I also thank all those who have read my posts, commented, and spit at me in disgust. I appreciate you more than you know. And love you.

I’m going away for a few days and then I’ll announce the next 21 day mission. I’m looking forward to it. I’d write more but my brain is shutting down; it’s 4:00AM.

Another wise man said, ‘And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.’ Abraham Lincoln said that. General Patton said the first quote.

See you at the next mission.

Day #14 of 21

Today was a good day. Got some work done. Did a lot of thinking. Started a chocolate business.

But it was also a bit of a strange day. As the thunder boomed and the power flickered on and off, I had an out-of-body experience. It was like I was on a small boat far from shore. I couldn’t see where I came from and I couldn’t see where I was headed. All the things I was accustomed to were missing. The really strange thing —I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back. I just felt that this new place, wherever I am supposed to land, is better.

Pondering. Fun. Peaceful. Quiet. Productive. Fun. Prosperous. Healthy. Fun.

It is interesting. My body has gone through its detox process and I am feeling much better. No hangovers. No excuses. Although I am still a momentum worker (I tend to work like crazy for a period of time and then I don’t do anything for a while), I am sharper and more productive. I also still take my naps.

So the question I ask myself is, ‘how do I take advantage of this while also enjoying an occasional party?’ I am developing an evil diabolical plan, which I will roll out in my final 7 days.

Wow. I’ve been clean… virginesque almost, for 14 days. I am fairly certain I will finish my mission successfully. That would be something, because, you see, I really didn’t think I’d last 3 days.

Interesting, life is.

Day #7 of 21

So, what was day #7 like?

Thanks for asking. I was quite productive but also took a 2 hour nap late in the day. Now, I love naps. I think it’s good for the soul. It allows me to work late at night when distractions are at their lowest…but my naps almost always come in the late afternoon… so I thought I’d do a little research as to why that may be. I mean, I’m not doing anything bad for my body and I’m tired?

It turns out the body has a very efficient garbage removal system. I’ll give you the nutshell version (it’s a really big nutshell).

It’s called detoxification… better known as detox… a la Brittany Spears and Betty Ford. Look at it this way.

Thelma, my blind dog, spills her water bowl a lot.

If your dog spilled his water bowl all over the floor, you would need to find something to sop up the water with. Right? So you find a towel to do the job. But if you only had one little towel, you may have to go back to the spill several times to remove it… and eventually, you’d have to get a dry towel to really finish the job.

But what if your dog did that several times a day? Every single day. For years.

Trust me… this is really going somewhere.

Now imagine your liver. That’s your towel. The spill is all that tequila, beer, wine, THC, cocaine, magic mushrooms and vodka you ingested last night. But the problem is, your liver can only sop up so much bad stuff… called toxins… that it takes a while before it’s all taken care of. Although the liver is the largest organ in our body (contrary to most male thinking), it also has lots of other things to do besides worrying about the 2 bottles of wine you drank last night. And since we only have one liver, when we drink the next day and the next day… you get the idea… the liver works overtime… lots of overtime. With no vacation. To do that takes lots of energy. And since we only have a certain amount of energy… much of that is sucked up by the liver to do its job.

And so we compensate. We drink lots of coffee… supplements… and pharmaceutical drugs because we’re so depressed about being tired and unproductive. And guess what? The liver has to do the heavy lifting. It’s a giant downward spiral… into hell. OK, maybe not hell.

And sometimes our liver can’t catch up. In fact, imagine taking a perfectly good car and driving it non-stop. The engine never cools, and we’re too busy driving somewhere so we never change the oil. The driving pros would never do that. Shouldn’t drinking pros also know better?

The liver, a most interesting and magnificent piece of engineering, is the same way. In both cases, if we don’t give it a rest and get the maintenance done it crashes. This is known as engine seizure or more to the point, cirrhosis of the liver.

Hmmm. I wonder if that could affect productivity?