So as part of kick starting my freedom I have decided to take a 30 day challenge of being free from alcohol.

Now obviously my aim is permanent abstinence but as with all objectives in life breaking things down into bite size junks can really help.

It’s the age old example of how you tackle running a marathon – you certainly don’t jump off the couch after 10 years of not exercising and complete 26 miles.

As part of this journey (and I am now on week 3 of my freedom journey) it’s important I think to really understand the “why” of doing this.

For me it comes down to some key things as to why I am doing this:

• being the best dad and husband I can be to my family.
• looking after and improving my deteriorating health (weight, energy, emotional).
• having a sense of direction and purpose to my life.
• maximising my potential by removing the poison – for example in work, at home, and for my children.
• serving others to help them maximise their potential.

There comes a point where the pain is so great that our human instinct is to run away from it and move towards becoming better – that is definitely where I am currently.

I find it helpful to visualise myself in the future and what it would be like to continue along this path.

What does the outcome look like? I can see my health further deteriorating, my desire and wants to maximise my time on our small planet diminishing and being in a permanent state of fog – definitely not something I want.

So I’ve planned out the next 30 days and what I will need to do. I’ve been thinking about what obstacles I might come across and what resilience I will need.

I think the more detail I can put into this the better. As part of this I am:

• planning in my weekends and what I will need to do.
• identifying high risk situations and what I will do – for example when I am tired this can be a trigger for me to relax with an ice cold beer.
• identifying the tools and techniques I might need along the way.

I will talk more about these in the up and coming days.

But for now – over and out.

Sam