How I Quit Drinking Alcohol

Aaaah, yes, have you been counting your AF days?

Have you gotten a little hit of satisfaction every time you cross a day off on your calendar or phone app?

Have you ever felt that feeling you get when you fuck up and you have to start the counter all the way back at zero again?

Disappointment, frustration, regret, anxiety, depression...

All that hard work you did, saying no to friends, having some serious fomo, emotions going off like crazy, sitting in depression or anxiety and nothing to calm you down at the end of they day… all for NOTHING. All that hard work counting days, now you’re back at zero!!!

Shit. What’s the point?

Don’t stress my friend. This situation is common. You may have seen many people posting in the group proudly stating how many days they have been free from alcohol, and then helplessly claiming they are starting back at day 0 and feeling like shit.

But what if counting days wasn’t really helping you to quit drinking at all?

Hear me out…

When we decide to quit drinking, at the peak of our hangover or hangover recovery, we can say things like “I’m never drinking again, NEVER!” with loads of passion, great intentions and with the pain of hangover and regret still fresh in our minds.

And with regret we go to our calendar or phone app and the imaginary counter starts at zero. 

Doesn’t feel good does it?

Once we fall off the imaginary bandwagon, it’s really hard to get back on, and it’s easy to give up. 

SO why do this to ourselves?!

It all comes down to motivation. 

What do you really want to motivated by? 

A number on a screen? 

Or being the best version of yourself, having amazing health, feeling great, looking fantastic, having wonderful connected relationships, spending your time and money on things you absolutely love doing that brings you real lasting joy??

_____________________________________

Let’s talk about motivation. 

Where does motivation come from? 

Answer: We create it. 

Depending on what we think about and how we choose to feel, we can decide what motivates us. Usually, what motivates us to DECIDE to quit drinking is to never feel the pain of hangover, shitty life situation and regret ever again. This is called Moving-Away from Pain.

Once we have moved away from the pain, maybe we stop drinking for a few days, the hangover is gone, life goes on. This Moving-Away from Pain motivation disappears. What we need to introduce to keep ourselves motivated is Moving Towards Pleasure motivation.

A number on a phone application isn’t very motivational. It doesn’t give us an amazing reason to continue on our AF quest. Instead, create some seriously epic meaningful reasons to not drink and let those be your guiding light. This is why GOALS are so important.

365 days on your phone app is not an inspiring goal. To be the best version of yourself, to be responsible, reliable, a great friend, compassionate, loving, having amazing relationships, emotional intelligence, behaviourally flexible, wealthy and abundant, passionate, purposeful, a mission-driven and contribution-focussed life are just a few WAY more inspiring goals to achieve.

Shit. What if I don’t have those goals?

That’s ok. Not many people have mission-driven life goals... and that is one of the reason why people are not as motivated or driven as others. This is something to start thinking about (yes, it can be scary, and not having a purposeful, mission-driven life is a bigger, scarier, riskier problem, chandelling with drinking alcohol)

_____________________________________

So, what steps can you take right now?

If you are counting days and you happen to drink alcohol, don’t reset the timer back to zero. Just don’t count that day.

Having one drink or one binge-drinking session doesn’t undo all the days that you didn’t drink.

Think about it as walking up a hill, every day you take a step up the hill. When you drink, you just stop walking and sit down, you don’t tumble all the way down to the bottom and have to start again. That’s a mind trick that you play on yourself that totally sucks, for you!

Don’t do it!! Keep counting the days up, keep hitting and celebrating your milestones and learn from each time you do drink.