I lied to you about quitting alcohol (I'm sorry)

I think I made 600 YouTube videos about not drinking alcohol and I lied to you about quitting alcohol , and it's time that I came clean .

So if you watch this video , I'm hoping that my honesty is actually going to help you on your journey to not only not drink alcohol , but I want to show you how , by not drinking alcohol , you're going to be able to level up your health , your relationships . Literally every area of your life is going to improve .

But in order to understand this , I have to be 100% transparent with you all . So before we get into this lie , let's first think about the typical routine of an alcohol drinker . A typical routine that I used to go through was I remember there was one point in my life where I worked in recruitment .

So I had this job in London where it was like a sales job , working in an office with a commute and all that stuff . So after I finished university , I went to go and try this career and I remember I didn't like it . I didn't like the commute , I didn't like the clothes that I had to wear , I didn't really like the people that I worked with .

One second I'm actually in Tokyo right now , so it's a little bit hard to walk around , but I'll do my best . But I had this job that I didn't really like . So by the end of the day I was drained , I was absolutely exhausted and I had these negative emotions that came up lack of energy , just didn't feel good . So what did I do ?

Well , every time I felt these negative emotions , I didn't drink alcohol , because all I wanted to do was find a moment of relief , like literally a few seconds of escape , where I just felt okay , I just didn't feel bad . And think about it . Right , think about the typical life of somebody who drinks alcohol .

They're always looking for that escape , looking for that relief , looking for that few minutes where they just feel okay . Now , the problem with this is that you can start creating this identity of somebody that's not okay . With discomfort , you feel anything , you feel bad , you feel unhappy , so you drink .

So then , if you think about your life , the life that you want lies outside of your comfort zone . Every big step that you take always takes courage . It's always scary , but then you know , when you keep telling yourself that when I feel this bad emotion , I have to take a drug to get rid of the emotion , what do you think happens ? Well , it's a nightmare .

And when somebody does this for years , this cycle of escapism then it's just a nasty place to be . And this will make sense .

We will come back to this in a minute and I will explain this life that I've been telling everybody in a moment where we going now Whoa , look at this , it's crazy , we're in Tokyo and I don't know what's going on , but it looks interesting . So that's the first thing , right ? That's the typical cycle of a drinker . Is this routine of escapism ?

Now going back to the lie . So the lie is this If you watch channels like mine , if you watch , I don't know , maybe an Andrew Shuberman video , you watch any video that's talking about not drinking alcohol , they're all going to talk to you about the benefits .

They're all going to say that you're going to feel better , you're going to feel happier , you're going to have more energy . And I'm not saying that those things aren't true , they're 100% true .

Now , if you think about when somebody makes a video talking about the benefits of not drinking , it's usually going to be in a place where they might be , I don't know , a few months sober , 30-day sober , 90-day sober .

They talk about the benefits and then they decide whether or not to continue with this on their life , or , sorry , continue with a sober journey , whatever you want to call it . So the problem is is that these individuals have this severe point of contrast where they're drinking , they're in a bad place .

They don't have good energy , they feel unhealthy , they're unfit , they may be a little bit fat . So if they remove this poison from their life , so what do you think they experience ? Well , only good things happen . Right , they experience a whole host of benefits .

Because the problem is is that you know they've had this life where their baseline of happiness has been down here because they've been drinking a poison . So as soon as they remove the poison , everything just gets better . Of course it's going to get better . Here's where it gets dark and the light will make sense .

But after two , three months is everything kind of starts to flat line , everything starts to normalise , you lose that point of contrast . You forget what things used to be like before you started drinking . So it just feels normal . You just feel how you did before you ever drank . So this is what I'm talking about , right ?

This lie is that quitting alcohol has a few benefits . Right , I'm not trying to discourage you , I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing this . But once you stop drinking look at this , all sorts of stuff going on . But once you stop drinking , you will get to a place where it just feels normal .

And I'm going to make videos talking about the benefits , talking about good things .

But listen , none of it actually matters , because when somebody has spent decades of their life in the cycle of escapism and then they stop drinking for 30 , 60 , 90 days , of course they're going to feel great , but then after 90 days , around that mark , everything just starts to flat line . And this is what I'm talking about . This is the lie .

We get told that it's going to be easy , it's going to be great , and then we get to this place where you might be 90 days in and you're like well , is that it ? Is that all it was supposed to be ? Here's the thing . When you're trying to stop drinking .

It can't just be about not drinking , because I promise you , if you make stopping drinking your only achievement , the only thing that you want to do with your life , in 90 days time , in six months time , you'll just get to a place where it's like nah , like what was the point , I mean ? But this is the angle . This is what I wanted to talk to you about .

You need to stop the cycle of escapism and you need to start building a life that you don't want to escape from . That is the secret to not drinking . It's building a life that you don't want to escape from . And right now , you know we're in Tokyo right now , and this was the life that I wanted to create .

You know , I wanted to create an online business . I wanted to get to a place where I could be location independent . I could walk in the middle of Tokyo and make a YouTube video . This was the life that I wanted to build and this is the life that I built , and I don't want to escape from this life .

It's so different to how it was five and a half years ago , where , you know , I'd worked with a bunch of people that I didn't really like . I'd get to the end of the day , I'd just be like I've had enough of this Drink , just to relieve those negative feelings and because I've not drank now for five and a half years .

You know I've never made a video in public like this right , it's uncomfortable , it doesn't feel good . People are looking at me thinking like what's this weird guy doing ? I don't care , because and here's the great thing is because I'm used to feeling discomfort and not resorting to a drink .

I'm used to feeling uncomfortable and that is the beautiful thing that happens in your life when you remove alcohol . If you're able to keep pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone , because not drinking on its own does nothing I promise you , after a few months of not drinking , it will normalize , it will feel normal . It won't feel like a great achievement .

You'll just feel , you know , kind of flat .

However , if you can make a vision , if you can create a vision , if you can create a vision for your life , how you want it to look two , three , four , five years down the line , and you can have something that you're excited for , something that you want to work towards , I mean , it's game over , because if you can build a life that you don't want to

escape from the thought of drinking alcohol doesn't enter your mind , because you're not trying to escape anything anymore , because you're in a place where you're happy , you know you're content , you'll feel fulfilled and that's where I want you to get .

So I've lied to you about the benefits of not drinking , but I've told you that there are benefits of not drinking . But listen , they all will go away and I'm not trying to discourage you . I promise you the benefits will go away .

You'll find this new baseline , this new normal state of being , and it's down to you to focus on building a life that you don't want to escape from . I promise you , if you can put all your energy into that , and no energy into not drinking alcohol , it's game over . You know you will solve this problem and I'm pumped . I'm pumped .

I'm pumped to be in Tokyo . I'm pumped to be in Japan . I'm pumped to not be drinking for five and a half years , because literally , I'm not even joking five and a half years ago I was at Grand Zable . I had nobody . I was staying at my best friends well , staying at one of my friends' place because I'd run out of cash .

You let me live in his room while he was away in America . And man , what a crazy contrast . What a crazy contrast . Anyway , keep it going , love you all . Have a great day . Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking Podcast by sober clear .

If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly , then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom .