A year ago, I awoke and grumbled the immortal words ‘Never again!’ Only this time I meant it (although I had really ‘meant it’ at least 500 times before).
In fact, most Saturdays, Sundays, Thursdays, Fridays – oh, and the odd Tuesday – started and ended this way. I was all set for a day of self-loathing in front of the TV, quite content to cry at I’m a Celeb or X-Factor , when it dawned on me that I was just existing, not living.
Every day had become a slog and some of the enjoyment was fading out of life. My world felt like one constant hangover. I was tired, anxious, just not right at all.
I knew exactly what was causing these problems, but I had no idea how to stop it. I was knee-deep in social brainwashing, and furthermore drinking was part of my identity. I was well known as a big drinker, a larger-than-life character who was first in and last out of the bar. I had built a reputation among my friends and within my industry as someone who was fun to be around – only that fun involved drinking on a pretty industrial scale.
Admittedly I was confused. I knew that I was not an alcoholic. I had a great career, never missed a day, coupled with a lovely family to support me. But I was on a slippery slope.
This got me thinking, perhaps the conventional wisdom that says, you need alcohol in your life to have a good time and be successful, was wrong. Having never really had any decent break from alcohol I got together with a group mates and we set ourselves a challenge, the ultimate social challenge ‘One Year No Beer.’
What we discovered was nothing short of miraculous. Over the year we smashed our long held beliefs about alcohol. Not only did we all survive, but life got 1000x better. Although, one thing made our adventure difficult, really difficult. Social pressure.
The social pressure to drink in our society, especially in Ireland and London where I now work, is immense. Quitting the physical alcohol was almost easy, but the psychological pressure to drink was unbelievable. Alcohol is the only drug in the world that, when you give it up, people berate you. Imagine bumping into a group of friends and announcing that you’ve stopped smoking. Then envisage that this is their reaction:
‘You’re such a lightweight! Having one cigarette isn’t going to kill you. You need to relax, you boring bastard. Have some heroin.’
You and everyone else on the planet would be horrified at this sort of reaction. But walk into any pub and announce you have given up drink and see what the reaction is.
This experience helped us realise that there are millions of people out there desperate for a break, who cannot beat the social pressure. Inspired by our adventures we set out to help as many people as we could. So we wrote a book and created a movement called OneYearNoBeer.com, to provide the support and excuse people need to smash the social pressure around drinking.
We thought, why not add ‘not drinking’ to the list of challenges everyone loves?
‘Do you want a drink?’
‘No, I’m on the One Year No Beer Challenge and I’m loving it, I am starting with 30 days and going to see how it goes and I feel bloody great.’
‘That’s right, someone did mention you were on some sort of challenge. Fair play. There’s no way I could do it.’
So, there it is. OYNB could be just the excuse needed to get you out of the blocks and past the first few months in full view of family and friends. No stigma, no fake stories. It’s just a challenge and nothing more. Once you break through the first few weeks, the monkeys are so far off your back that you can then decide, in full control, whether you want to push on for the year or never drink again. The choice, as always, will be yours.
I have to admit not all of us made it the first time around, it took some longer than others to complete a straight year, but what we learnt during this time was amazing. Between us we made every mistake in the book, and fell many times, but we all dusted ourselves off and came back stronger. As I write this, it is almost two years since I made the life enhancing decision to quit the drink.
Rather than take away from our lives, quitting the booze gave so much back. For a start we were all fitter, healthier and wealthier than ever before. Our relationships thrived, business increased and our productivity went through the roof. In general we felt great.
We can’t state this enough, there is nothing to give up, life without alcohol is so much better. Don’t believe us? All you have to is give it a try and find out for yourself. So if you want to get stuff done this year, or have had enough of the hangovers, join us on our adventures, it’s all for free so you have nothing to lose, only everything to gain.
If you want to know more, here is a free e-book for some extra inspiration. The book set’s out to break all those long held myths about the upside of alcohol and explains how we took on the year, survived and thrived.
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