This is a question that you should be asking yourself, if you are humming or hawing about whether or not you should stop drinking.

If you’re thinking about quitting drinking alcohol.

If you’re seriously mulling it over in your head and you’re thinking “well, can I do this” and “should I do this.”

Then one of the questions you should be asking yourself is – “what are the long term consequences of me not quitting drinking now?”

“What is going to happen in my life, if I don’t stop drinking?”

One of the best ways of doing this is to simply sit down at a table.

Sit down on your chair.

Take out a piece of paper, two pieces of paper, three pieces of paper, whatever it takes.

And a pencil; a pen.

And start writing down what you think or where you think the direction of your life is going to go, if you don’t stop drinking alcohol.

It’s not an easy thing to do.

It’s going to give you a fair bit of pain to think about this and to think about – if you really do delve into it – and think about things from the future perspective.

The best place to start is where you are now

What is the pain that you’re feeling now?

Why are you thinking about it?

Why are you watching this video?

Why are you thinking about your alcohol consumption at all?

And expand from that.

Maybe you’re just feeling shit because you’ve done something that you didn’t want to do and you realise that this is a drug and it’s put you out of the game.

You’ve had a black out and you’ve said something or you’ve done something.

Maybe somebody has said something to you?

And said to you “Well, you know, I’ve had enough of this. I don’t like you fucking drinking anymore and if you don’t stop it. . . adios amigo!”

Start from there and work your way outwards.

Think about, where you’re going to be in a years’ time, two years’ time, five years’ time, and try and project yourself into that, into that person.

Think about it from that perspective.

Think about it from a financial perspective.

Where you’re going to be in terms of your money.

How much money it’s going to cost you?

Don’t forget that alcohol is – it’s a drug – and the more you use it, the more you’re going to need to use it.

If you take your drinking now and how much you’re drinking now, you can start to multiply that as you go down the line.

Five years’ time – you’re going to be certainly drinking more – if you carry on drinking.

Think about all the fights that you’re going to have

Relationship fights.

Fights with other people.

Fights with yourself.

Moderation is just one fight after another.

One internal conflict after another.

I’ve been through this countless fucking times and I’d just got sick of it.

Sick of doing it all the time.

I’d moderate and think I’m drinking way too much.

And it was normally after I’d gone through – maybe gone out in the weekend and drank 20 pints on a Sunday night and just woke up two o’clock in the morning.

As I’ve said, I’ve talked about this loads of times, and I did this loads of times.

Woke up and my heart would be going. . . (heart pounding hard sounds).

And I’d be sweating and I’d just feel like crap and I’d feel like.

“This is it! What the fuck am I doing to myself?”

What the fuck am I doing to myself.

And really I’d start to look at myself then and see myself in a completely different light.

I’d be awake for the rest of the night.

I’d come into the front room, I’d sit on the couch and I’d just watch TV show, after TV show, curled up with a blanket around me, feeling sorry for myself.

Monday morning would come and I wouldn’t go to work.

As I said – I’d feel crap.

I’d eat crap food to try and make myself feel better, add a little bit more comfort, to the comfort that I’d added, the night before.

And maybe Tuesday I still wouldn’t feel like going to work.

So I’d lose two days out of work.

And then the people that I cared about would be coming in and looking at me and they’d be thinking. . . you’ve only got yourself to blame.

You know all this kind of stuff.

But at the end of the day, this was my life

This is where it was going.

So I sort of – for the rest of the week whilst still under the influence of that weekends drink, I’d go “oh no, I’d have to moderate, I’d have to moderate.”

And I would moderate for the week and I would get to the weekend and maybe I wouldn’t drink as much.

Maybe I’d force myself to come out of the pub.

But it was a pain.

It was all the time a fucking – there was a pull there, towards the drink, to have more, to stay in the pub.

To have the craich, when the craich wasn’t there.

And to do these things, that were completely against what I wanted in my life, but I felt this was something that – it just had a hold on me.

But at the same time, I’d be telling myself, no this is just – it’s part of who you are.

You just have to control it.

You have to bring it back down.

Like I say I would bring it back down for a while, but then it would go back up to the same level again.

I’m just saying that there’s a whole host of different reasons and I’ve gone through so many of them.

Saying shit that I wouldn’t want to do, being the person I didn’t want to be, doing the things I didn’t want to be doing.

Blacking out – a lot of stuff, that eventually led me to stop drinking.

Look at every different angle of your life from finances, spirituality, from your relationships to what it’s doing to you physically

And project that five years down the road or ten years down the road and just see where you are going to be as a person if you don’t stop drinking.

I tell you this is one of the best things that you can do.

Just write it down.

Write your list down, because every time then, you start feeling sorry for yourself and thinking “well, maybe I can go back… if I do moderate.”

“One won’t harm or one or two won’t harm me.”

Waiting until tomorrow, won’t harm you.

As you know as well as I do, that in your life when you say I’ll wait until tomorrow, most of the time tomorrow never comes.

Tomorrow’s never going to happen.

So write down your list.

Write down all the consequences.

All the risks that you’re taking with yourself now, right at this moment.

And where those risks are going to be, as they pan out in your life.

It’s the best exercise you can do if you’re considering quitting drinking – is just to visualise yourself – in this future self.

As I said before this is a future self which you don’t have to put up with now.

This is not the person that you are now.

But it’s the person that you’re going to be.

You’re going to eventually have to go through this.

You’re eventually going to have to suffer the consequences of this.

It’s your present self, pushing these consequences onto your future self, onto the future people around you.

Anyway, that’s it for today.

“What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.” – Ralph Marston

Until next time…
Take care of yourself.
Stay safe.
Keep the alcohol out of your mouth.
Good luck.
Onwards and Upwards!

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