There’s a whole story about how I stopped drinking. I don’t know if it’s unusual or not but I have turned it into a talk. I have given the talk a couple of times and I would be very keen to do it again. So please reach out if you know of any organisations or groups who might benefit.
One of the things I did back at the very earliest stages of quitting alcohol was to write myself a letter. I am not really into journaling (I blog on occasion, mainly for work) but I felt I needed something to refer back to in order to keep myself motivated to stay stopped.
*Spoiler alert* I didn’t need to refer to the letter once. It was tucked away in a box and the first and only time I got it out to read it was one year after giving up. In fact, I’ve lost the letter now. I was a bit gutted when I lost it because I kind of wanted to keep it as a momento, a keep-sake.
But turns out the letter did its job purely by existing. I didn’t need the letter, I just needed to write the letter.
The letter was purely for my eyes only. I didn’t want to ever share it with anyone else. It was my honest take on exactly what alcohol meant to me at that point in time (I wrote it shortly after the night I finally realised I needed to at least take a break from drinking). In short, very little.
In the letter, I landed on the idea of alcohol being my Kryptonite (in the context of my initial joy of drinking alcohol in my teens and 20s was because it turned me into some kind of Superman!).
It detailed the truth about what alcohol did for me – upset people close to me who I love, was potentially ruining my health and taking away precious time through memory loss and suffering from those awful hangovers which made me (even more) grumpy.
I realised in writing the letter that alcohol took far more away from me than it gave me. It made it crystal clear in my mind that ‘giving up’ alcohol actually meant gaining far more in return. It’s this clarity that’s made it so easy for me to maintain my alcohol-free living.
So I am grateful to the letter – specifically to the act of writing the letter – because it was incredibly helpful in getting me through that early period where I was missing the booze (in particular red wine, which I thought I’d never get over but now tastes like shit vinegar if I ever take a sip).
So, if you’re needing some additional motivation to start to stop or stay stopped, maybe write yourself that honest letter?