How Do I Quit Drinking Alcohol?

Ok, so this is question I get asked often. How do I quit drinking alcohol?

It’s not a simple answer. It requires an understanding of why we do what we do, and for everyone it’s going to be different.

However, there IS a way NOT to quit drinking alcohol. And that way is doing the same things over and over again, expecting the same results. It’s just a great way to fail, feel like shit and give up.

SO, when it comes to quitting drinking alcohol, we MUST be prepared to do something different. This something will feel weird and icky, it will be uncomfortable and it will be something may not necessarily want or feel like doing. The only certain thing isn life is change, now is the time to start getting used to it!

Everyone wants a step-by-step approach to quitting drinking, however, not many people want to actually do the steps. So the first step must always be…


Step 1: Embrace change!!


Your life will not look the same as it did when you were drinking, YOU will not look the same as you did when you were drinking. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll be the same person… AND you'll be different at the same time. People might say “you’ve changed!”. And they’ll be right. You HAVE changed. And change is also FRIKKIN' AWESOME!

Let go of the old you. 

Embrace the unknown. Embrace the “I have no idea what life is going to look like but I’m doing it anyway!”. You may not know who you are without alcohol, this is normal. I didn’t. The thought of not having alcohol in my life scared the shit out of me!! But the pain of fucking up all the time, disappointing my family, embarrassing myself, losing everything I owned and hurting my friends just was not worth it anymore. The thought of living a life where I actually liked myself, where I felt good, where I was intelligent, capable, reliable, responsible, wise, confident and a great communicator... was so compelling that I knew it was worth it. I was ready to let go of that old, immature “me" that I was growing out of, and ready to embrace the different me who I have no idea what they look like?! To quit drinking alcohol, you don’t have to be “ready” (no one’s ever ready), just let go of everything you thought you knew was right! This is called having an open mind, being curious… and wise.


Step 2: Model Excellence

Have you ever heard the term “Don’t reinvent the wheel”?

This is what modelling excellence is all about.


Modelling excellence is about finding someone who has already done what you want to do, someone who already has what you want to have, and then learning how they did it so that you can have it too without having to go through the ‘hit and miss’ phase (and trust me, you can be going through this phase your entire life). For example, if I wanted to be a pro snowboarder, I would find someone who is a pro snowboarder, and I would contact them. I would ask them how they became awesome at snowboarding and what they would do differently if they could do it again to get their results faster. Then I would do exactly what they say to do. What kind of snowboard and gear should I get, which mountain should I start riding, which snowboard camp should I join, who should I get coached by, what physical training should I do, what it the best job to get to support me, what snowboard movies should I watch, which snowboarders should I follow, which magazines should subscribe to etc.

"I would NOT ask my Mum for advice on how to snowboard. That would be ridiculous!"

Unfortunately, many people ask for advice from the wrong people, including quitting drinking (or they don’t ask for advice at all and just guess what to do). Friends and family can give well-meaning advice, but if they have not done it before or they are not trained to do so, how good is there advice really going to be? Not really high-quality advice.


  • “Don’t keep it in the house”
  • “Just stop drinking for a month, then you’ll be fine”
  • “Nah, you’re fine, you don’t drink that much”
  • “Pour all your alcohol down the sink”
  • “Do Dry July with me!”


This advice is well-meaning and may help you stop drinking for a while, but it won’t really solve any of your problems long term.

When people ask me “How do I quit drinking alcohol?”

...they are really asking me 

  • “How can I live an extraordinary life?” 
  • “How can I learn to trust myself?” 
  • “How can I become the person I really want to be?” 
  • “How do I know that I’m good enough?” 
  • “How do I know people will still love me?” 
  • “How can I know that I belong?” 
  • “How can I love myself again?”


This is where the journey begins for people who are serious about quitting drinking alcohol.

This is the reason why I created the How I Quit Drinking Alcohol Online Program. The purpose of the program is to answer these questions, it’s to face these “riskier” problems... and in the process, the quitting drinking problem gets solved along the way.


The best way to model excellence (in my biased opinion) would be to join the How I Quit Drinking Alcohol online course. It's created by someone who has successfully quit drinking alcohol, and is specifically for people who want to quit drinking alcohol. There are other programs out there like rehab, AA and other online courses, and if they resonate with you more, you can go with them too!


And within these groups, or this How I Quit Drinking group for example, you can model excellence even further.

For example, in this group you will find different people who are doing well and people who are not doing so well. One way would be to follow the people who are not doing so well. They would be the one’s complaining that it is hard, saying how much they want to quit but they keep failing, talking about their problems, disempowering themselves. It’s not their fault, they may not know any better, but now you do!

Another way would be to find the people who have successfully quit drinking in the group and learn from them.

  • What are they doing?
  • How are they speaking?
  • What are they posting?
  • How do they handle situations?
  • How often do they post?
  • What questions are they asking?
  • What do they focus on?
  • Can I ask them directly how they did it and follow their advice?


The answers to these questions will lead you to their results.


Step 3: Ask great questions

I’ll create an epic post about this very shortly. But to get a head start, look at those questions above!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! Let me know what you think.

Btw, if you are interested in joining the HIQDA Online Program, click here to learn more about it…

Check it out!