Your Toolbox 

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Journals

Writing down your thoughts and feelings on a daily basis can be very helpful to understand more about your moods and how they fluctuate depending on your environment. When reviewed at a later date, the collection of your writing can help you understand the range of emotions you have experienced.  

You can keep a journal of your new experiences and new learnings, what it was like, what happened and how successful you were. This could be online, in a handwritten diary or perhaps a voice recording.

Self-Discovery

There is a whole world of knowledge and information available to you through books, articles and on the internet. Think about what interests you or what you are curious about or even areas for your personal development. Try to build in 10-15 minutes of time each day to research, read, or watch a short video on your chosen topic.

Well Formed Outcomes Model

When you think about being free from alcohol or indeed looking at the future or something you want to achieve in your life your mental approach has a massive impact on the outcome.

Feeling annoyed that we have tried to stop drinking in the past or telling ourselves because it didn’t work before and it’s really hard it’s not going to work in the future. We can imagine telling people what we think of them and shocking them that we managed to quit alcohol for a month or whatever. This is problem thinking and is really what you need to be moving away from to become successfully free from alcohol or a perceived problem in your life.
Dreaming about the future without alcohol, the benefits the happiness, the freedom – imagining the skies are blue and the sun is shining and we are proud of ourselves with our fabulous achievement. This is outcome thinking and what you should be moving towards before you contemplate committing to a date to quit.
Outcome thinking is likely to focus your energy on the achievement – almost a steer away from alcohol and towards the other benefits. It focuses you on moving forwards and increases your chances of achievement.
When we want to change something we often focus on the problem:
X what is the problem?
X how did the problem come about?
X what happened?
X who’s to blame?
X who’s fault is it?

These maybe questions you’ve asked yourself about alcohol. However, a better question to ask yourself would be – “what would being free from alcohol do for you?” To make lasting changes in behaviour it’s about turning the problems around looking at the future, and identifying the positive outcomes. 

Below are some questions to ask yourself before you agree with yourself the quit date. It’s important to consider these before quitting because they form part of your freedom and route cause as to why you drink:

 

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