The Secret to Thriving in Prison

There are a million and a half ways that prison is different from being free. I was reminded of it every time I laid down to go to sleep on my lousy mattress. I didn't lose 20+ pounds because the food was so good I just didn't want to eat it! And the cops walking around in stab vests with mace on their hip - combat style - rounded out my daily reminder: you are in prison.

There was one shocking similarity; an unexpected concern for myself and fellow inmates. In a world deprived of so many sources of entertainment, how could this one thing be such a huge concern when doing time? Any guess what it is? I'm not quite ready to reveal it, I'm building up to something. We're getting close, I promise.

My federal prison camp didn't have individuals TVs, just TV rooms, no phones, no internet, and certainly no TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. So how did so many of us fall into the same trap that "free" people do? It's a universal trap. It impacts the incarcerated and the emancipated.

The vehicle may be different, but the result is the same: mental, social, and physical decline.

If the result is the same, are the reasons for succumbing to it the same as well? I was a victim of this faux pas pre-incarceration. I didn't always know it; what started innocently with 5 minutes, quickly turned in to 10 minutes. 10 minutes turned into 2 hours. Time flew by.

In prison that's the point. Inmates don't stumble into this trap, they seek it out. Everyone is just trying to pass their time. But how you pass your time is important, you could say your life - or at least the quality of it - depends on it.

If you pass the time by overconsuming you are throwing away the time that was given to you.

Before you go to prison you receive your sentence, your punishment. It takes you away from friends and family. It halts your career and removes any trace of familiarity you were clinging to.

There is an alternative viewpoint to adopt. Your sentence is a gift of uninterrupted time to focus and grow and create. If you became a scholar and a creator, what could you accomplish with the time you've been given? What won't you achieve if you overconsume the minutes away?

I chose to create.

I didn't step foot in a TV room my entire sentence. I didn't buy the overpriced tablet referred to as a digital pacifier. I bought an ungodly amount of notebooks, stacks upon stacks of paper, and countless BiC pens.

I journaled daily. The fact that the postal service isn't bankrupt yet? That's because I wrote enough letters to keep it afloat. I wrote business plans, chapters to my memoir, and tried my hand at a romantic thriller.

That isn't to say I didn't consume at all. I read, a lot. I read books on life, business, relationships, and philosophy.

I wasn't perfect at following my rule of avoiding overconsumption. I fell into that trap multiple times. Once I read two 400 page Jack Reacher novels, in a day, two days in a row! It was glorious! The headache was worse than drinking a bottle of bourbon and I probably could see better after drinking the fifth.

My overconsumption hangover was a minor consequence. Daily repetition could have led to a complete waste of some 15,000 hours of opportunity.

Overconsumption, not time, is the enemy. Fall prey to it and your body will wilt, your mind will rot, and your relationships will run for the hills.

Whether you're serving 20 months or 20 years you get to choose how you spend it. I chose to thrive. I chose to create. I chose to manage my consumption and turn the time I was sentenced to into the time I was gifted. Time I need to design and build the future I wanted for myself and my family.

What's your choice?