Drinking Less Made Luxury Real-Estate Agent Fitter, Better at His Job

• Luke Smith started drinking more after he moved from the UK to Dubai for a job in luxury real estate.
• Alcohol made him “hazy” at work, and his personal trainer advised him to give it up.
• His health, social life, and performance at work have improved since he gave up drinking last year.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Luke Smith, a 27-year-old commercial manager for a real estate firm in Dubai. It has been edited for length and clarity.

In March 2020, I moved from the UK to Dubai to take a real estate job. Now, almost five years later, I’m making multimillion-dollar deals and have given up alcohol — a change I never would have imagined making if I’d stayed in the UK.

In the UK, I would often binge drink on weekends, but I didn’t have a problem and I never woke up the next day with regrets. It’s just ingrained in UK culture.

In the first 12 months of being in Dubai, I would drink here and there, but I was very, very disciplined. My role was commission only with no salary, so I had to make sure I didn’t spend all my savings.

But by February 2021, I had my roots planted and was starting to see some success. That’s when my drinking picked up quite dramatically.

I started drinking more after I settled in Dubai

There’s a tight-knit British community in Dubai who have carried over the UK’s drinking culture.

There was also a lot of drinking at work events, especially if things were going well. On Fridays, I’d go for a business lunch and drinks with colleagues or somebody who I’d closed a deal with. And when the job got stressful, I’d let off some steam by going for drinks with colleagues.

I also started drinking more outside of work hours. Whereas in the UK you might go to a club on a Saturday night, the British social scene here is centered on bottomless brunches and afternoon drinks by the pool. So, as I made friends, a lot of the plans involved alcohol.

All that alcohol definitely made me feel foggy — but most of my colleagues were doing the same. Everyone would come in on a Monday a bit hazy, talking about how wild the weekend was.

By November 2023, I had noticed that my decision-making was getting worse when I was drinking. I did and said things I wouldn’t have ordinarily. I didn’t like the fact that I’d started feeling out of control.

I drink less for my health and well-being

People often assume that I stopped drinking because I had an alcohol problem. But while I wasn’t happy with my decision-making, it was by no means a problem. Stopping was just a personal decision to benefit my health and well-being.

I got a personal trainer in December 2023 because I wanted to improve my fitness. He said he wasn’t interested in having me as a client if I continued drinking like I was because I wouldn’t get any of the benefits.

Plus, I had been getting closer and closer to a friend who didn’t drink. As I spent more time with him, I did more activities that didn’t involve drinking and I was introduced to a different lifestyle. We would go to the gym or the sauna, or just enjoy what Dubai had to offer.

Then, in January 2024, I did Dry January. I realized I didn’t miss alcohol at all, so I didn’t drink until February.

I didn’t set out to stop drinking, but I realized it wasn’t worth restarting because it was benefiting my so much. I had so much more energy, mental clarity, and focus. That might have been from a change in diet and exercise, but giving up alcohol also improved my lifestyle, too.

I started playing golf more regularly, got into padel, and started running. I was just trying to find different hobbies to fill the gap left by alcohol, but going sober put me in more appropriate circles for what my deeper interests actually are.

Ultimately, I’m in Dubai to make a difference for my family and my future self, and I want to focus on that. Drinking alcohol at the weekends just doesn’t feed into that goal.

If I hadn’t moved to Dubai, I don’t think it would have been possible to change my lifestyle in the positive way that I have.

I still go to work events — I just have 0% beer

Now, I pick and choose when I actually want to drink.

I still go to all my work events and participate — I just drink tonic water or a 0% beer and leave earlier than I would when I drank.

When I’m on holiday or have some downtime, I quite happily have alcohol.

I went back to the UK last month and drank most days, because that’s what the culture is — especially over Christmas. I really enjoyed it because I knew it was only going to be for a short time, and it was something I hadn’t done in a while. By the end, I was very much done.

You can be labeled boring if you’re not going for drinks on a Friday. But at this point, because of my hobbies and the people I surround myself with, it doesn’t affect me. I have other ways to enjoy my life.