Here is another mistake that often holds people back when they try to change their relationship with alcohol: assuming that a lack of willpower is the problem.

After all, that’s what most of us were told: that if we are stronger, more disciplined, and have more self-control, we would be able to:

• Say no to the cocktail offered at our friend’s birthday party.

• Skip our usual beer at the end of the day.

• Resist the temptation to open a bottle of wine on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

We believe that a lack of willpower is the reason that we give in to temptation.

But what we fail to question is an important question: why do we need willpower in the first place?

Because of perceived benefits.

The temptation only exists because part of us genuinely believes that we are missing out on something valuable by skipping alcohol, such as:

• The feeling of being more outgoing, confident, or laid-back after a cocktail.

• The sense of finally being able to relax that comes with the second can of beer at the end of the day.

• The quickest escape from boredom is offered by a bottle of wine on a dull Sunday afternoon.

Beneath the temptation is not a lack of willpower, but the beliefs that we're giving up something valuable by skipping alcohol.

And the truth is, no amount of willpower alone will be able to dissolve the temptation or eliminate the feeling of missing out. As long as those beliefs remain unexamined, they will continue to fuel the temptation and pull us back into the same drinking cycle.

I call it Unexamined Beliefs.

It’s the second invisible force that keeps pulling us back into the same drinking cycle.

I'm curious:

What do you believe you are giving up on by letting go of alcohol? 

Jeanette

P.S. In my most recent reel, I shared how Unexamined Beliefs have played out in my own journey. You can watch it blow: