Oh my days, what a topic this alcohol free living is these days. There is so much interest in it, whether it is just someone dipping their toe into it or from people much further down the road of living life without alcohol. It gives me great hope that people are starting to imagine their lives without the shackles of alcohol consumption always lurking just below the surface of every social occasion. It makes me incredibly proud to acknowledge that as of today, I am standing on top of 1,700 days alcohol free.
At the start of this journey, it is very very hard to remove alcohol from your life. It obviously depends how dependent you are on it to begin with but for most people, social occasions are the hardest environment of them all when trying to remove the demon drink from your life. Before you start into this journey, and it is a journey, think hard and deep about your “whys”.
Why are you doing this?
Why change now?
What’s going to be different afterwards?
Who are you to even try something like this?
These can be hard questions to grapple with so it’s best to sit down with pen and paper and work through them. Take as long as you need to articulate the reasons why you want to do this. It is precisely because this is a hard thing to do, that you will have to draw on these reasons time and time again when the going gets tough and the easy option is to drink. You have to remember why you are changing and those reasons should be deep, genuine and mean something to you.
By way of an example, my whys are below. I captured these in an app called “I am Sober” so they are always with me, on my phone, available to read, anytime I need to call on them.
You can clearly see the thought process here – they move from the vain and physical to the deep and meaningful. For me, these are really powerful pictures of the person I want to be, day in day out. Going alcohol free was the single biggest catalyst in helping me achieve and continue to meet these goals. Even just re-reading these now is motivating me to keep alcohol out of my way and these are the prizes. The question now becomes “why would I drink”. Because if I drink, I lose all of these parts of my life and I really value them. I value my physical health, my kids, my wife, my relationships. This is where motivation morphs into drive. Drive is a deeper, longer lasting committed push towards something. If motivation is like pouring lighter fluid on a fire (great for getting started but dies off quickly), drive is like putting a heavy wooden log on it (sustained heat over time). Drive is where you want to be and after 4 years and 8 months, I am incredibly grateful for this alcohol free journey I continue to be on.
I am the happiest I’ve been in years and that is down to, in no small part, removing the alcohol obstacle from my way.
If you are considering the same path, feel free to get in touch and we can discuss how I can help.
Yours in health and happiness,
JP
The Health Project 