Today I just want to talk about getting rid of the temptations out of your life, especially about alcohol. I’ll just give you a couple of tips.
The first one is to concentrate on your house first.
I mean this is the place where you’ve got the most control out of everywhere else.
Hopefully you don’t have alcohol at work unless you work in a bar or some other place that serves alcohol.
But for most people, that’s not going to be an issue.
So the first thing is your house, it is the area where you’ve got the most control.
Some people don’t have full control, if you’ve got a partner that drinks for instance, unless they’re going along with you for the ride and saying ‘yeah I’ll do this with you’, then you’re not going to be able to clear out all the alcohol.
But you’re still going to be able to make some adjustments.
If it’s a situation where you can get rid of the alcohol, then do.
Don’t have anything in the house.
Don’t have any of the paraphernalia, the corkscrews, the fancy glasses, the pictures, whatever you’ve got that reminds you of alcohol.
Get rid of it.
Shove the alcohol down the toilet, get rid of the other stuff.
If you don’t want to do that then give it away to somebody else who can use it, but you’re better off throwing it away.
Put it out of arm’s reach for anyone.
If you’ve got somebody that wants to keep drinking, like the situation that I was in, get rid of as much as you can out of the house.
All the drinks that you don’t drink, your specific drink, get rid of that.
Get rid of the glasses that you drink out of.
Maybe that’s not possible, maybe you drink the same drink.
I’m just saying do your best.
You can always ask your partner if they wouldn’t mind drinking in a separate room.
Or, you sit in a separate room.
This is not going to be a permanent thing.
Once you get over the initial temptation phase, maybe a few weeks into this, then it’s not going to hit you as hard.
It’s still there and it will make you think about it, but that’s all it is, a thought.
At the end of the day, just don’t put it into your mouth.
That’s how you beat it.
Regardless of where you are, temptations are everywhere.
You’re going to come across temptations, tempting environments, tempting people and all that kind of stuff.
So you have to deal with it.
But if you can make your house and your home as secure as you possibly can, as temptation free as you possibly can…
Anybody should be able to talk to their partner and go ‘this is what I’m doing and I would like your help. If you don’t want to quit drinking, that’s fair enough, I’m not trying to force you to do it but at the end of the day, I need your help. I need you to cut me some slack for a few weeks’’.
Like I said, temptations are going to be everywhere, and your final resort is just to use your mind to say ‘’this is not happening.
Regardless of what I see outside of my brain, it can’t force me to drink and it won’t force me to drink. A drink is never going to touch my body again, period, full stop, end of story
’’.
Always remember why you’re doing this.
Figure out your reason, your health reasons, your family reasons, spiritual reasons, financial reasons, figure out the goals that you want to achieve in your life, have those goals set.
The goals that are going to pull you away from alcohol and towards the better future for yourself and keep those in mind.
Write them down on a piece of paper or a card or whatever.
And pull it out every so often when you’re feeling tempted, pull that sheet of paper out and say ‘’this is why I’m doing it.’’
Have a little box there where you can have photographs of your kids or your goals, whatever you can.
Put it inside a box that reminds you of where you want to go and the goals that you want to achieve.
Another thing is to have somebody on standby –a good friend, sort of an accountability partner.
Somebody that you can call whenever you feel really crappy.
This has to be a good friend and they have to be there, be willing to talk to you and talk you through whatever it is that you’re going through.
Another thing is to have distractions to distract yourself.
Whether you can plan these out – which I think you should- before you stop drinking.
Plan out exactly what you’re going to do, when you’re going to do it.
As soon as the temptation strikes, get up and do something.
Action is the best way of distracting your mind.
Go out and walk.
Go out and do some skipping or jump up and dance or whatever it is that you have to do to take your mind away from it.
Also, challenge the thought.
You know, like ‘’hold on a minute, this is only a thought that’s just coming into my head. It’s not reality until I make it real and I’m not going to make it real. It’s going to stay where it is in my head’’, and that’s it.
It’s only a thought.
Think about it, let it pass away and move on to something else.
Your last line of defence is no matter what happens, as long as you don’t put the alcohol into your mouth, you have succeeded.
You haven’t failed.
That’s what it all boils down to.
Your alcohol habit is built up one alcohol mouthful at a time, and breaking that alcohol habit is all about breaking it down one mouthful of alcohol at a time.
You’re just refusing to have that one mouthful of alcohol.
I hope you got something out of this video something that will help you.
Until next time, have a great day, stay safe, keep the alcohol out of your mouth.
IT IS EASIER TO AVOID TEMPTATION THAN TO RESIST IT.
Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards!
This video was important to me. I’m having trouble quitting. I think I expect someone else to do this for me. I am not taking responsibility. I think of myself as a smart person, so I should be able to figure this out, but I have to step up to the plate and not wimp out. Anyway, this video said things I needed to hear. Thanks, Kevin.
Louise me too I keep slipping around when I normally start drinking
that time makes me very anxious.