I’m not saying it’s gonna be easy. I’m saying it’s gonna be worth it!

Day 2 

You cant beat a good apt quote to summarise a bundle of thoughts and feelings and leave you feeling inspired. And this does exactly that for me.

After last nights night of not sleeping, going over the year in my mind and taking on many of the forthcoming challenges of not drinking for a whole year. I thought about events planned, weddings and stag parties coming up, football matches, reunions. All events that would be a cert to binge drink on normally, and all of them planned in for the year coming. All of them seperate challenges to overcome.

I thought of the difficulties I have in even approaching a weekend and not considering what bottle of red I might have, or who to meet for a ‘quick pint’. Let alone the idea of hitting Ibiza for 4 days with 20 lads on a stag do.

I thought of the unthinkable challenge of going to watch the football and breaking the lifelong tradition, between family and friends of meeting a few hours before the game for a few, sneaking one in before kick off and seeing if we can manage 3 at half time. The challenge of the inevitable disappointment that will arise when replying ‘lemonade please’. How dare I be different!?

And then I think of the reasons why I’m doing it. Whilst also developing new reasons. Maybe I do dare to break tradition. Maybe I thrive on it. Maybe the tradition is not so much a tradition as an identification. And my identification within family and friends shouldn’t be linked to how much or often I drink. Maybe it’s time for a new paradigm.

Today I went to work and the subject of how much people had drank over Xmas seemed to be the hot topic. Some people were discussing doing a ‘dry january’. Fair play. Probably a wise starting point. I mentioned attempting the whole year off the beer. The response motivates me. The response of laughter, ridicule almost. It’s absurd! People just don’t do the whole year alcohol free. Or do they?

It was my first challenge. It was easy enough, cos I’m still riding the crest of the early wave of determination. I know there’ll be other challenges to come but I’m trying to focus on the benefits. On the sense of achievement, the internal verification that I can do what ever I set my mind to, to feeling of health and clean living. I’m focussing on beating these subliminal demons that burn holes in my pocket and liver.

I’m not saying it will be easy. But I am saying that it will be worth it 🙂