Habit

Get Your Willpower On
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Willpower: the ability to control yourself; strong determination that allows you to do something difficult (such as to lose weight or quit drinking).

After you quit drinking, there will be times when you will crave alcohol, and it will take willpower to overcome that craving. It’s like a tug-of-war between you and the craving. The craving wants you to do something unhealthy, to pull you over to the dark side. But you know what’s over there on the dark side if the craving wins: a brief feeling of euphoria (the buzz from the alcohol), followed by misery (hangover, sickness, missed days at work, lost weekends, wasted money, etc.).

If you don’t currently have a lot of willpower, you will have to fight a mighty battle to beat the craving. It will take every fiber of your being to overcome the urge, pulling on “the rope” with all your might to stop yourself from drinking.

If, on the other hand, you have highly developed willpower, you can make a simple ninja-move and let go of the rope, sending the craving crashing back to the dark side.

People who use their willpower:

  • Stick to their plans
  • Keep their promises
  • Reach their goals
  • Do what they say they’re going to do
  • Learn new skills
  • Climb mountains — real and virtual
  • Make things happen
  • Take charge of their lives

Develop Your Willpower

If you want to succeed at most things in life, you need willpower. And here’s the good news: you have it. We’re all born with it. It’s one of the most important tools you have in your tool kit — consider it a super-power. But, like a muscle, you have to use it to develop it.

You have so many simple opportunities every single day to develop your willpower:

  • Get up when the alarm goes off
  • Choose a healthy breakfast over junk food
  • Brush your teeth – every day, twice a day
  • Make the bed
  • Get to work on time
  • Have an exercise routine
  • Do the laundry
  • Pay the bills on time
  • Wash the dishes
  • Keep your home clean and tidy
  • Resist unhealthy temptations
  • Go to bed when you should

The list goes on and on. To develop your willpower, you do what needs to be done, whether you feel like it or not. No excuses. You will yourself to do the right thing. And you do it before even thinking about rewarding yourself with watching your favorite TV show, or a movie, or going out with friends, etc.

It might seem difficult at first, but, like learning to ride a bike, or to drive a car, it becomes second nature. You develop healthy, empowering habits, and rid yourself of procrastination and old, bad habits. You become your own master.

If you consistently take care of the smaller things in life, every time, when you should, you will be developing your willpower; you will be ready to take on life’s bigger challenges when they arise.

As Nike’s powerful slogan says: “Just do it.”

It’s really that simple.

KTB

A Ninja Walks Into a Bar
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Ninja: a person who excels in a particular skill or activity.

After you make the very wise decision to kick the booze, replacing your old bad habits with new healthy ones can be a major challenge. Not least of all as we move towards the end of the week and, ultimately, the weekend, when our friends convene at bars and parties, and proceed to get ripped on their alcoholic beverages of choice.

The first plan of attack for these situations is to have a serious think about who your real friends are. If all of your friends are reckless boozers, it’s going to be very difficult for you to hang with them and not be quickly sucked back into your old ways.

But maybe you’ve got some sensible friends who occasionally have one or two drinks over the course of an evening, and then stop. They don’t get wasted, they remain in control (to a degree), and are fun, good people to be around. You want to keep these friends in your life.

Now, back to our ninja — that’s you. Imagine your new, ninja self, going to a bar with your good friends and ordering an iced tea, or a refreshing sparkling water with ice and slice, while they all order their alcoholic drinks. Imagine yourself doing this with ease, knowing that you are in full control of your actions and choices.

Next, imagine the evening progressing, and you being aware of how the alcohol is affecting your friends, how they’re getting a bit goofy, how maybe they start to share information that they might not have if it wasn’t for the booze. Picture yourself fully engaged in conversations, having fun, sipping on your healthy drink.

As the fog of alcohol plays tricks on your tipsy friends, imagine yourself seeing everything in pure, crystal clarity — fully aware of your surroundings, in absolute control of yourself.

Lastly, imagine yourself waking up the following morning, after a great night’s sleep, with no trace of a hangover, ready to make the most of your amazing life.

And it’s not like you have to work for months or years to get to this point. You can choose to stop drinking right now — in a split second; in one swift and decisive ninja move.

KTB

Cut Yourself Some Slack
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If you swore that you’d never have another drink — maybe you promised yourself that “this time, I mean it” — but you succumbed to the urge and drank, don’t be too hard on yourself. There are literally millions of people fighting the very same battle that you are.

Cut yourself some slack — you are human — and do all that you can to treat the hangover.

It can take days to fully recover from a night of boozing, but with each day you will get progressively better. It might help if you write down just how awful a hangover makes you feel, and refer back to those notes the next time you are considering drinking. Somehow, we seem to quickly forget how bad the effects of alcohol can be.

Start Over

If we break our promises, we have to get up, dust ourselves off, and start over. Try to be aware of the situations that tempt you to drink, and then try to avoid or change those situations. If you’ve had a terrible day at work, and the norm is for you to hit the booze, do something healthy instead. Go for a walk, read something inspiring, remind yourself that by choosing to not drink, you are making yourself a better and stronger person.

You have to break the bad habits, and create new, good habits. I recently purchased some new glasses because my old ones made me think of wine. A small change with a big effect.

You can do this.

KTB

New Glasses and a Fancy New Drink
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I’ve had a set of stemless wine glasses for some time now, and when I hold one of those glasses it really wants me to pour some wine into it. So I decided to pick up some new glasses today — a set of four for the price of a cheap bottle of wine. They have a completely different feel to the wine glasses.

I also picked up some lemon and lime flavored Perrier water. I’m not a Perrier drinker, but I thought it might make a nice change. I was right! A nice glass, the Perrier, some ice and a slice of lemon, and it feels quite decadent. And healthy!

I’m going to reserve this healthy drink for the times that the old me would have had alcohol, thereby replacing an old, bad habit, with a new, healthy one.

Small changes can make a big difference.

KTB

Close Encounters of the Booze Kind
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The eve of Day 2, and I’m feeling highly motivated to kick the booze for good, though I did have several unplanned encounters with it today.

This morning I was looking at some vacation destinations for a hard-earned trip that I’m planning with my other half. Most of the photos of the accommodations had glasses of wine in them — by the jacuzzi, beside the stove in the kitchen, on tables beside sunbeds.

Then I picked up a piece of Mahi Mahi at the store (silly expensive – I hadn’t noticed the price until it was too late), came home and googled a garlic sauce recipe to go with the fish. The first recipe that I clicked on was made with white wine.

And while at the grocery store, I was whizzing through gathering bits for the week, and rounded the corner of an aisle into the booze section — I had to go through it to pick up some bread — surrounded by towering shelves of wine and beer.

Booze is everywhere. It’s “normal” to drink, “they’d” like to have us believe. It makes it tough for a person trying to quit. But knowing that that’s what you’re dealing with is a big help; you can come up with some strategies to counter it. And you should.

Remembering that the poison in those attractive bottles, and cans, and boxes has the potential to kill you might help; that alcohol can quickly cause an intelligent person to make really bad decisions; that it ruins so many relationships, with friends and loved ones; that excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years.

Some sobering thoughts indeed.

KTB