Don't drink alcohol.
That's it.
It's tempting to throw down a laundry list of New Year's Resolutions (which might as well be titled 'You Are Not Good Enough'), but despite the overwhelming desire to change everything about myself and my life right now, I'm Not Going To!
The first day of 2020 is nearly over and I've spent the last few (many!) hours reading sober blogs to reinforce my commitment to AF living. Given that it's been, what, FIFTEEN years of being on this drink/quit drinking merry-go-round, it's easy to sometimes think that I've read it all and I know all there is that can be said about embarking on a sober journey. I can be such an annoying know-it-all sometimes. (I mean, if I really knew all the answers, I wouldn't be here at Day 3 again, would I? Derr!)
Anyway, I've just stumbled upon a gem in Belle Robertson's 'Tired of Thinking About Drinking' blog. At about the two-month mark in her sobriety, Belle started trying to make additional self-improvement goals such as losing weight and starting a writing project. In the PDF version of the blog (that I received when I signed up for her regular emails yesterday), she's made an edit, several years after the original writing of the blog. In it she advises against 'layering more goals on top of early sobriety'.
I have to stop to let that one sink in, because it's the kind of thing I'd normally just dismiss, and barge on ahead with my aforementioned endless list of things I want to change about myself. Given that it's the first day of the year, I have been thinking about wanting to eat better, to maybe quit coffee again, to get more exercise, cook more often, etc, etc, etc.
But maybe - and here's a genius brainwave - maybe I don't achieve most of my self-improvement goals because I try to do too many of them at once without actually focusing solely on ONE at a time, for a decent chunk of time. (Derr! Again).
So that's my decision: I'm going to give myself just one job, and that is to make sure that I don't drink alcohol, no matter what. As my wonderful WhatsApp 'pen friend' and fellow Sober Sister Irish Susan from Madrid would say, "Not today, lady. Not today". (Note to self: write about Susan and the Sober Sisters in a future post; they are amazing women and deserve a proper mention).
I'm not going to drink today. Not today, lady. Not today. And tomorrow I'll say the same thing. And that's going to be my primary focus for the foreseeable future.
Hmmm. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I can keep on that track, then the other things I want to do will sort themselves out along the way :-)
Betty
x
No comments:
Post a Comment