Pick your hard

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. Lao Tzu

I hate it when people say, its actually easier to drink less. The logic is that there is less physical exertion, you don't spend as much money or time planning. Blah. Blah. Blah.

I can see the logic of it now, begrudgingly. But at the time, this felt like a platitude. Not helpful.

For me, the hardest part of drinking less was unlearning the drink = fun equation.

Drinking less in our society is going against the tide.

Think about it - we actually have to justify drinking less. This doesn't happen with other things. No one asks why you aren't having an extra bump of cocaine tonight.

Swimming against the tide is hard.

It is also hard dealing with the after effects of drinking too much. Wasting the next day feeling terrible, trying to piece together if I said something wrong, dealing with the extra weight.

I decided to pick my hard.

In the beginning, I worked at changing my behavior by deciding ahead of time how many drinks I would have. There is science that supports why this is effective and it definitely worked for me.

But I decided to keep going. I kept digging because I wanted to uncover what was driving the habit. This is where I sought some outside help. A coach helped me see the drink = fun equation in my own brain. It was so ingrained that it was literally invisible to me. I considered it a universal truth.

Once I could see this as the root cause, then my work was to unbelieve this "universal truth."

Definitely an interesting process! It requires curiosity and compassion and 100% worth the effort.

I learned how to drink less and now I can focus my energy on living more.

If you think about it, drinking less in our society is an act of rebellion. I hate that my kids are growing up in a society that bombards them with these messages. That kids connect with strangers on Snapchat to buy them alcohol. Scary on so many levels.

I want them to see that there is another way to rebel. That's definitely something that I can get behind.