3. Why language is so important when choosing your drink less or alcohol-free goal

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Hello, darling heart, and welcome to the drink less, live better podcast. This is the podcast that helps you to see that drinking

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less doesn't need to be stressful, lonely, or boring. I'm your host, Sarah Williamson, and I decided to have a year alcohol

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free as a little life experiment, and I haven't looked back. With my experience and training, I now help other women with

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their alcohol free or drink less adventures. You can find out more about me and sign up to my 5 day drink less challenge at

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drink less live better dot com. I'm here to tell you that you can relax, connect and have fun without alcohol in your life.

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Join me here each week to find out how. If you'd listened to episode 2, you'd have heard me talk about how I committed to

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my 365 days alcohol free. Today, I'd like to tell you a story about the way I chose my language around what I was planning.

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I had committed to 1 year alcohol free and I was clear on the reasons why I wanted to do it, but something was bothering me.

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I shifted my start date from the 1st Jan into December, and that was in part because I didn't want it to be a new year's resolution.

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I also didn't want my year to be a goal or a challenge. These words feel to me like something to strive for or endure, and

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god knows I cannot live in the strive or endure zone for longer than about 20 minutes, let alone a year. So what would be

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better? Could it be a trial, a campaign, an undertaking, an experience no, not quite, none of these things, but what about

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an adventure or a life experiment? Yep, either of those sounded like a good fit. To me they say medium term, full of possibility,

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potentially fun and slightly outside of my comfort zone. So armed with the why, the how and the language of a 1 year little

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life experiment I was ready to start. The first time I had really known I was going to come to this point was in June 2017.

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It took me two and a half years to be ready to move it forward, and in that time I struggled over and over again with the

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ideas about why stopping drinking would be hard, stressful, or boring, so the second decision around language I made was not

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to say I wasn't drinking. Now a lot of what I'm about to say is semantics, but hang in there. I choose to be alcohol free

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as a little life experiment sounds so much better to my brain than I'm not drinking. My brain likes the idea of a choice,

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prefers alcohol free to not drinking because, in fact, I am drinking. I drink loads of other stuff, and adding in the reason

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why gives my brain a cute reminder every time I say it. Even though I am well over my 365 day life experiment, now I continue

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to choose to be alcohol free. I cannot see myself ever saying I'm never drinking again because my brain got used to that being

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a massive lie all the many times I said it between the ages of 15 41. Thank you for listening. Please listen again next time

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to find out why telling some people and not others was useful in the early days of my alcohol free life experiment. It would

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make me happier than a Buddhist monk if you would 5 star review my podcast on whatever platform you listen, please. Imagine

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it like tasting notes on the finest wine I am never gonna drink. Thank you, and PS, I believe in you.