I Wish I Knew THIS Before I Quit Drinking Alcohol

Five and a half years ago , when I stopped drinking alcohol , if I knew what I'm about to break down for you in this video today stopping drinking it wouldn't have been difficult . There'd have been no resisting , There'd have been no cravings , the process would have been easy , and when I say easy , I mean as easy as washing your car .

In fact , that's a bad example , because washing your car sucks I'm talking about as easy as posting a letter in a mailbox or making a sandwich . It would have just been as easy as any other thing that I do on a day-to-day basis . But with alcohol and stopping drinking it never feels easy . It always feels like a fight and a battle .

But in my journey it wasn't a fight , it wasn't a battle , and today I want to get you there as well . That is the purpose of this video is to help you get into a mindset where stopping drinking is like a walk in the park , because it can be that way . It was that way for me . I've seen it happen .

Now there must be 10,000 people that have watched these videos , that have stopped drinking just from the videos alone , for free . I've worked with people directly , hundreds of people in a coaching program , and the stuff that I'm going to share with you in this video today is the best of the best .

I'm going to give it all away for you today , and you will never have heard anything like this before , and the reason why is because it's embarrassing . I don't really want to share this stuff , but I know that it could help you . So to understand exactly what I'm on about , I need to go back in time a little bit .

Back in time to a place where I didn't like myself at all . See , I grew up in the north of England , in a place called Lancashire . A lot of people ask where I'm from , but that's where I'm from . That's why my voice is this way and my accent's this way .

I remember I didn't really like myself , and what I mean by this is that when I was in primary school which is like age five to 11 , I did like myself . I remember having loads of friends going to parties , whatever , and I remember when I went into high school it was a lot more competitive , you know , with men .

Like some , kids will reach puberty much younger , so they'll grow and they'll get way more attention from girls . There were people that were better level athlete , there was all sorts going on and there was a lot more competition .

And listen , when you're young you do this kind of stuff but you compare yourself to other people and I just remember , like my high school years , I didn't like myself . I had this low self-esteem and this haunted me into my late teenage years and early twenties where I didn't like myself . And you will understand why .

This all is connected to not drinking and making not drinking easy . But when I was in my 20s I started reading personal development books . I didn't really have any role models back home . I remember reading how to Win Friends and Influence People when I was about 20 . I remember reading the Way of the Superior man .

I remember reading the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People . There were some mindset books out there and I remember starting to consume all of this good quality information and that's when I found an author called Brian Tracy .

Now Brian Tracy was a personal development guru , like a business coach , teaching people how to optimize your time , manage your time , all of this stuff . And he would speak a lot about self-esteem and at this point I didn't realize I didn't like myself . I just thought the way that I was was the way that I was , but I had no point of comparison .

I didn't think it was possible to even change . That was me . I was Leon . I was skinny , I was underweight , I didn't make much money . I came from a bad area of England . I grew up in a council house . That's just who I was . It manifested from not having a girlfriend and not dating .

When I was in my late teens and early twenties , I think there was a period of my life where I didn't talk to a girl . There was one girl I spoke to in I don't know , 18 months . Trust me , we will get to how this makes stopping drinking easy . But I'll never forget reading a Brian Tracy book and I remember it as an audio book .

I remember listening to it because I remember hearing it going whoa , what was that ? And he started talking about how self-confidence is one of the most , if not the most , important attributes when it comes to building a career and building a business and doing anything with your life .

Anyway , in one of the books he said one way to boost your self-esteem is to say I like myself . And I remember hearing it and it sent shudders down my spine and he said try it right now . There's no way that you can say this to yourself and not feel better about yourself . And I literally tried it .

I just said I like myself , I like myself , I like myself . And he said say it 20 times . If you've never done that before , try it now . And it was an awesome experience and I remember it clear as day .

I remember the first time I did it and I just felt like do you know what I do like myself Now , bringing this back to alcohol , I didn't stop drinking at that point . I think I probably even smoked cigarettes back then . I might have even smoked marijuana . I still did things that somebody who likes themselves wouldn't do .

But now , if I'd smoke a cigarette , I'd start thinking a bit more . I'd be like all right , well , I'll smoke the cigarette , but I'd go out for a night out and I'd wake up the next day and I'd think I don't know about this . It really helped me start questioning my patterns of behavior Was saying that I like myself the secret to not drinking ?

No , but this realization that I came to after saying that does make stopping drinking easy , which we'll come to in a second . But let's just think for a second . Let's picture this person in your head that has perfect self-esteem , perfect self-confidence . They fully believe in themselves , they're positive , they're open-minded , they're nice to be around .

And it's not narcissism , it's just true self-confidence , self-belief . They're still nice to be around . They don't need to be the center of attention . This is just somebody with perfect self-esteem . I'm not even sure that it exists . I'm sure everybody has moments of doubt where they don't feel 100% . But let's just picture it for a second .

Do you think that that individual would ever , ever , need any drug ? Do you think they'd need to have a few drinks when they're socializing with their friends ? Do you think that they'd trust themselves to get back home after a hard day of work and be able to relax without a drug ?

Can you imagine that person having a shot of tequila before going to approach somebody that they were attracted to ? No , they wouldn't , would they ? Because here's the thing it's impossible to like yourself and continue drinking a drug and feel okay with it . I'm not saying it's impossible to continue drinking the drug .

But if you like yourself , you know in your heart what you're doing is wrong . You know in your heart that that drug is doing nothing for you . You know that every time you take a drink it's another hit to your self-confidence , to your self-esteem , to the way that you see yourself .

And this is the thing is that every time we try to stop drinking and fail , we don't feel better about ourselves . It makes us feel even worse . Like I've told you guys , a thousand times I tried to stop drinking . Most days I don't I've lost count of the amount of times I tried to stop drinking .

And what do you think happens when I say to myself do you know what ? I ain't drinking anymore , I'm done . And then two days later I'm drinking . Three days later I'm drinking . The same day sometimes I'm drinking . Think that makes me feel better about myself . It makes me feel worse and worse and worse .

And one of the problems is that some people that drink alcohol feel so bad about themselves is that they just keep doing it . They never question their beliefs , they never question the drug . They just go on and on and on . And I'm not saying , I'm not trying to say that you've got zero self-esteem and you dislike yourself .

I'm just explaining my experience and my journey because this is what worked for me . But then what also happens in the world ? Well , we tell ourselves , right , we're not going to drink . Sure , that willpower approach that I was talking about makes us feel worse . Then we go to a therapist , right ? We say , do you know what I right ?

We say , do you know what ? I can't do this on my own . I need professional help . So we might go and sit with a therapist . And then what do we do ? We talk about our childhood . I mean , I've tried this , I've done this .

We sat , we spoke about , you know , poor Leon and poor Leon's upbringing , and , oh , you know , he was like this is , this is trauma , this is so bad . Nobody had to go through this . A meeting , right , we might sit in a 12-step meeting and then buy into this idea that we're an alcoholic , that we can never be fixed .

And if you think about all of these things willpower , aa , therapy all of them aren't making us feel better . Sometimes those approaches can make you feel better . If you promise yourself that you're not going to drink and then you never drink again , man , you're going to feel awesome .

If you go to a meeting and you buy into these ideas , but you actually stop drinking . Great , you're going to feel great about yourself , but what I found is that these traditional ways of stopping drinking , the old ways of stopping drinking , they made me feel worse . So then let's imagine that somebody does stop drinking alcohol , but they change nothing .

They live the same life . They get home and watch Netflix . They don't change anything , they don't try to improve themselves . They and this is why a negative approach of stopping drinking , where you never change anything , never seems to work .

Long term it can work I'm not saying it's impossible for it to not work but there is such a better way for you to do things .

Firstly , you need some self-love , some compassion for yourself , because somebody that truly likes themselves and loves themselves and I'm not talking in a narcissistic way , I'm talking in a healthy , self-esteem way there is no way somebody that loves themselves is going to pick up a poison and put it in their body . It's never going to happen .

But what we end up doing is the short-term pain of stopping drinking , the discomfort you know , the withdrawal , getting over that first hump , actually making a decision to stop drinking , is short-term pain . It's not easy , right ? It's not easy . To click the link in the description and book a call and speak to me about your drinking problem . That's not easy .

Sure , we make the process easier , but you taking the first step , that's hard , that takes courage , it takes faith , it takes a step . It's not just wave a magic wand .

There are processes , there are actions that you need to take , but somebody that likes themselves and thinks long-term is okay with that short-term pain , because they know that on the other side of not drinking , alcohol is a life of freedom . It's a life where you're happy and with that life of freedom , is the correct approach of not drinking .

This isn't something that I've just made up and started talking about now . This is something that I've seen in hundreds of people in a stop drinking coaching program with SoberClearcom . I have seen this work time and time again and it's about having a vision for a better quality of life .

If you stop drinking and you start , you know exercising , you start eating the right kind of food , you start reading books , you start working harder on your career , start being there for your family , what happens to you as an individual ? You like yourself . You like yourself more and more and more . Your confidence goes up and up and up .

And it's why focusing on the future , having a future focused approach , is the critical step of making stopping drinking

easy . Because if you stop drinking and then you start feeling worse and worse and worse about yourself , what's the pattern of behavior that most drinkers follow here ?

When they're feeling bad about themselves , they want to escape , whereas somebody that has been building themselves up over the past few months you know they've lost 20 pounds they're looking in the mirror , they're liking what they see , they're getting a few compliments at work , they're seeing their bank account go up and up and up .

And that's what I did in my own life . When I stopped drinking alcohol , I was just in such a bad place . I had no money . I had to borrow money off my family . I was living at my friend's place , I was overweight , I wasn't exercising , I was in a place where I didn't like myself .

But when I stopped drinking , I said about self-care I'm going to go back to the gym . I'm going to restart my personal training business Now . I'm going to move to Asia . Then I'm going to start an online business . I'm going to do things that will improve confidence over time . 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 .