How’s your Dry January going?
By this point in the month, the goals you set at New Year can seem a long time ago.
If your enthusiasm for alcohol free living is waning – or you could do with a dose of motivation to keep going – I want to help you stay on track.
In today’s video, I’ve got 3 quick tips to help you smash Dry January (or whatever sober goal you’re working towards right now!)
Key points:
1. Put inspiring affirmations in places you’ll see often
Here are some of my favourites: Sobriety delivers everything alcohol promised. No one ever regrets waking up without a hangover. Drinking steals happiness from tomorrow. I’m going to be so happy I didn’t settle.
Write these on sticky notes and put them in places that will catch your attention. Or set them as reminders on your phone so they ping up at different times. However you do it, make sure these things are visible.
2. Give your unhelpful thoughts a voice and personality
“Just have one, you can get back on track tomorrow! It’s been a long day, you deserve a drink.” Thoughts like this can be persuasive because they seem so innocent and almost caring. It feels like no big deal – you’re just giving yourself a break, right?
Now imagine those words coming from the mouth of someone you know doesn’t have your best interests at heart – someone who’d be quite happy to see you mess up and struggle. How do you feel when they speak to you like that?
3. Spend 10 minutes a day getting inspired
Invest in your sobriety by engaging with things that make alcohol free living easier. You could watch some of my blog videos, read my book, listen to a podcast or search for inspiring posts on Instagram.
Whatever you decide to do, jump into it for 10 minutes with the attitude of, “What can I learn from this?” Remember, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Be open to learning something new.
For more help and support to create an alcohol-free life you love, check out my online course here.
41 responses
Hi Kate,
I just wanted to say thank you!
A year ago I completed your course and it was the best decision I ever made. Still going strong and hope to stay that way.
Mary
Hi Kate
First time in years I have not had a drink since new year. I am doing dry January for charity. It seems strange not having a drink but i find keeping busy helps and i pour myself (sometimes) a glass of zero alchol lager.(its not sweet like non alchol wine). Also am losing wine belly
Well done, keep going Joanne!
Hi Kate,
I took your course in October and learned abs advanced a lot. When does your February online group open up to people who took your course.
Thank you.
Hi Kate,
Thank you for these very helpful tips. I also think about the miracle of a good functioning body that God gave me and how alcohol can be a detriment to it. I pray for strength to get me through the day without a drink. This could be your fourth tip.
Hi MJ, I’ll be in touch in mid February should you want to join the membership 🙂
Hi Kate , love your blogs they keep me focused. Didn’t start dry January till the 12th so carrying on until mid February and longer.Thank you so much xx
Well done for making that commitment. Keep going!
I’m so pleased to hear that Mary! Congratulations. It sounds like sobriety suits you ❤️
I started being AF on December 1, 2021. I had a beer & few glasses of wine on my dad’s Bday 12/9 & got back in track until Xmas Eve & Day then New Years Eve.
On January 1, I started Dry January & I’ve been 100% successful. Feeling better than ever & dropped 10 pounds, from 143-133 since 12/1/21. The time that I ate the most was in the evening after Happy Hour & dinner with wine. I never want to go back to that !!
Hi Kate
Thank you for the tips. I am doing ok, don’t even want to drink alcohol at all, it’s fixated in me now that it’s a drug.
I won’t let alcohol control me anymore. I was all or nothing when it came to alcohol so l am hoping my break from alcohol will be a very long one.
I just want my body and health to be clean so l don’t want anything like ethanol contaminating it.
Its sounds like an ethanol-free lifestyle suits you Sharon! Well done – keep going 🙂
I am doing really well but I always want to clarify I started AF living on oct.30.2021 so before I started Sober school and the first month I felt hopeful but pretty crummy. I am now on day 85 and feeling so great. One thing I do is keep reading great books about AF living every night ..MRS. D.is going without,Quit like a woman,The Sober Diaries,Kick the Drinking Habit. ..and on and on.
I have them stacked up next to my bed.I want to keep reminding myself how much this matters so even 5 pages before I sleep seems valuable.
“Even 5 pages before I sleep seems valuable” – love that attitude Suzena. Great to see you building on your sobriety… you’ll be celebrating 100 days soon! 🙂
Thanks just needed that
I am still trying to get started and finding it tough but this is so helpful.
Hi KT, have you listened to my pep talk? I think that could help: https://thesoberschool.lpages.co/pep-talk-opt-in/
Thank you, Kate for your information/reminders on the good of not drinking alcohol. Here’s one that helps me – to remember alcohol is poison!! When you’re filling up your gas tank, imagine putting the nozzle in your mouth for a sip or two, because that’s what we’re doing when we drink alcohol – ingesting ethanol!
Exactly – it’s a powerful image! Yuck.
Thank you Kate. My best advice is yours, really – I’ve embraced this alcohol-free period rather than white knuckling it this time and avoiding social things – and what a difference! My best friend and her family came to stay a couple of weeks ago and she and I stayed off the sauce – it was honestly one of the most fun, relaxed and happy weekends with them ever. Same thing visiting my daughter at uni last week and going out for an amazing meal. Next weekend I’m going to a gig with my teenage son. Fun things are plenty on their own; they don’t need the “enhancement” of alcohol. I didn’t really believe that until now, as my habits were so entrenched, and because I’m a shy person who thought she needed booze to have fun. Thank you again.
I love what you wrote here – “Fun things are plenty on their own; they don’t need the ‘enhancement’ of alcohol.” That’s a great realisation Liz, such an important one. Congratulations on your sobriety!
PS – sorry! – board games of an evening. Something like Rummikub … I am SO much better and sharper and win more often. Brilliant fun. Before it would be TV plus wine, so this shakes up the routine.
Hi Kate! One thing you said was about wine being rotten fruit… that got me thinking… I’m on day 2 of sobriety also because I have fatty liver disease and well, frankly it scares the hell out of me so I think I’m done! I was drinking close to a magnum of Chianti a day!!! Still need words of encouragement and support. Thank you for doing what you do!!
Hi Kate. I am grateful for discovering your ‘The Sober School’ and enjoy listening to your blogs and reading other people’s comments. They are a costant motivation to stay focused.
I tried AA many years ago with limited success that culminated in failure. Recently I inadvertently discovered Allen Carr’s ‘The easy way to control alcohol’ which resulted in a completely different mindset and a kind of rewiring of the brain which has made it relatively easy to abstain from alcohol.
Another inspiring book that has helped is ‘This Naked Mind Control Alcohol’ by Annie Grace.
Again, thank you and God bless you.
Keep going Yvonne! I have a pep talk here that you might like to listen to if you need some more encouragement: https://thesoberschool.lpages.co/pep-talk-opt-in/
I have finally realised my life will be so much better without alcohol don’t be like me, I fell down my stairs the week before Xmas I fractured my neck I am still in hospital. I am one of the lucky ones I am not paralysed I just need to wear a neck brace for 8 weeks and some physio on my right leg and hand
That sounds like a lucky escape there Samantha. Hope you’re taking good care of yourself 🙂
So glad to see u back kate. Im struggling , but love everything you have to say about booze. X
It’s such a shame you left the course Sandra. You could have been in such a different place if you’d stuck with it. I hope you’ll continue to work on your sobriety 🙂
117 days AF. Thanks to this course I’m still going strong. I don’t miss it a bit. Not one single bit.
Woo hoo, 117 days already! Congratulations LaDuska, I’m glad you’re still going strong 🙂
Thank you, Kate!! You taught me so much!! It feels good to feel good!! AF is where it’s at!
Thanks for the new video and inspiration! I’ve been feeling sort of ho hum about my sobriety. After a couple of years, it’s gotten to be old hat and I was missing some of the early excitement of my achievements. This reminded me of just how great it is to remain sober, even if it becomes ordinary!
It’s easy to forget just how far you’ve come Dove 🙂
You never regret not drinking when you wake up!
You may regret drinking! Forever!
Exactly! No one ever wishes they’d woken up with a hangover 🙂
If I happen to walk by some bottles of alcohol at a store and it feels as though they are calling my name, I say to myself: “It’s not my lifestyle anymore.”
What I appreciate in saying this is that it’s a reminder that, for me, an entire lifestyle is contained in a bottle of wine or hard alcohol. For me one drink leads to more drinks. And this pattern leads to a downturn, eventually. I end up feeling hopeless and helpless–as though I have no will or determination.
Yet, it’s that dopamine rush I’ve just made myself subject to in taking a first drink. Am relieved to say, “It’s not my lifestyle anymore.”
Thank you, Kate.
You’re right Ellie, it is an entire lifestyle – it’s never just one or two drinks. An alcohol free lifestyle is the best 🙂
KATE I AM SO GRATEFUL I JOINED YOUR SOBER SCHOOL I HAVE NO DESIRE TO PUT THIS POISIN IN MY OLD BODY. I FIND GOING BACK AND REVIEWING YOUR LESSONS SO INSPIRING, I FEEL IT HAS FINSLLY CLICKED BOOZE IS NOT MY FRIEND!
I’m so pleased to hear that Sheila, congratulations! Keep going! 🙂
I find that if I can just get past that 6pm feeling of reaching for a drink, I’m fine for the rest of the evening. If I feel that urge coming on, I have a zero caffeine coke, or zero alcohol beer, or cup of herbal tea plus something that feels like a treat, like a biscuit or a bit of choc, and it gets me through that sticky moment, and then I have dealt with the craving. Hope it keeps working!