 Hi there, this is James Swanik and you're listening to the Alcohol Free Lifestyle podcast where you learn how to take back control over alcohol and live a life of health, wealth, love and happiness. You should be worried about quitting drinking. If you're anything like the 20,000 or so people that I've helped quit drinking, then you probably have some concerns or some worries just before you venture into this quitting drinking lifestyle. I'm James Swanik from the Alcohol Freedom Formula. If you click on some of the links down below, there's some free resources there to help you get started quitting drinking, don't forget to subscribe to the channel. So I've got some comments here or some concerns that people have emailed me or Facebook messaged me over the years about what concerns they have or what they're worried about when they're quitting drinking. So someone here says, I'll feel embarrassed when people find out I'm quitting drinking. I totally get that because society starts to look at us as like, oh, he's not drinking or she's not drinking. He must be an alcoholic or she must be an alcoholic. But what I have found is and what I've shared with my 20,000 or so people who've now used my formula to quit drinking is when you go alcohol free, the way that you share that you are alcohol free is far more important than you actually saying that you're alcohol free. Because if you say, yeah, I'm not drinking at the moment, I quit drinking, yeah, I had a bit of a problem, then you're bringing a lot of negative energy to it. And likewise, the person that you're sharing this information with is going, oh, go on, just have one. It's okay. You've done so well. Here, just have a drink. Come on. But it's the weekend. Oh, it's a special occasion. Just have one. And they'll be like, oh, he's got a drinking problem. So but if you say, yeah, I'm being alcohol free at the moment, I actually quit alcohol. I've just, you know, I put on some weight and I wasn't feeling that crash. And so I just quit for a while and now I feel great. But yeah, grab me a soda water, a lot of soda water, thanks. And you bring that type of energy to it, then it's very hard for people to either verbally attempt to shame you or most importantly for you to feel shame or for you to feel embarrassment. There is a shift going on in society now where being alcohol free and choosing a life without alcohol is now like it's gathering steam. It's got traction. People are finally waking up to this thing that we've been peddling on society for all of these decades that alcohol is fun and cool and that it's associated with romance and good times and companionship. That we can have all of those feelings without the alcohol. So the way that you deliver the news with feeling light and confident and with a smile on your face is far more important than what you say. Let's have a look here. I don't feel I'm ready is another big concern. Well, here's the thing, you'll likely never feel ready. You'll likely never feel ready. And so it's really a decision you got to make. It's like, do I wait for the perfect time or do I just make the time perfect? Do I wait for the perfect day or do I make this day the day? Because there will always be a reason not to quit alcohol. Oh, but I got this wedding coming up. I've got this special occasion. I've got so much to do at the moment. I just got to focus. I'll get to this next year. I'll do it at the start of the month, etc, etc, etc. And sadly, what happens is that we never begin. We never even start because we keep putting it off. So there'll never be a perfect time, except for now, right now in this moment. And if you are ready to make now the perfect time to quit drinking, then I want to invite you to click on one of the links below this video where you'll get some free resources there on my methodology for quitting and staying quit. I'm not sure this will work for me, a lot of people say. So they're not sure they don't trust themselves. They they they're enthusiastic about quitting, but they don't truly deep down believe that they can quit and stay quit. So look, that's perfectly normal. It's perfectly normal to have those fears because maybe you've tried to quit before and you weren't able to stay quit. Maybe you fell back into old habits. And then, of course, the judgment starts, doesn't it? You start to say, oh, I'm hopeless. I'll never get this. Why can't I do this for my kids and my family? Everyone else can do this. Why can't I do this? And then this the story, this game, this guilt and the shame starts to kick in. Totally understandable. And if you're a human being, then it's likely that you that you will feel those things. However, there is no way for you to get a different result without you taking a different action. And the greatest fear can often create the greatest breakthroughs. So courage is feeling the fear and taking the action anyway. It's feeling that fear, but stepping forth anyway. So I want to invite you to feel the fear, feel the worry, but then just trust the process and take that step. Now, that doesn't mean that you run enthusiastically in the wrong direction. Right? You don't want to just do it with brute willpower. It's like, I'm going to do it this time. I'm really going to do it this time. I'm really motivated. That's proven to be a largely ineffective strategy. But if you follow a proven strategy like the alcohol freedom formula, which is now helps 20,000 plus people quit drinking and stay quit. And you get a coach and a mentor and you get appropriate accountability. And I don't mean your husband or your wife or your kids or your friends. I mean, appropriate accountability of people who are also quitting drinking and living this alcohol free lifestyle. Then your chances of success increase exponentially. So, yes, feel the fear and take the action anyway, but make sure the action is the right action. And in my experience, the right action is following a proven formula. By the way, that is not willpower. OK, having appropriate accountability. That's a group of like-minded people doing the same thing as you and having a coach and a mentor. OK, so. Click on the link below. There's more details there. I have a couple of different programs, 30 day, no alcohol challenge, project 90, find whatever one is appropriate for you. Click on that and I make sure that my programs give you all three of those things. OK, I'm worried my identity will change if I actually do this. That's another big concern. So here's the thing, your identity may change, you may be a different person and it may just be it might just be a better person. You might just like the new you. Doesn't mean that you have to cut your friends out of your life. No, you can keep your friends. Doesn't mean that you'll now start living life at a nine out of ten rather than feeling like you're living at a six out of ten. Yes. You will step up your game. If you were once here, you'll now move to here. So your identity might change. Some friends of yours may get left on the on the side of the road. You don't you won't necessarily cut them, but because you're now elevated to a higher level and you've got clarity, focus and energy and you're doing cool, epic stuff that they're not doing, you may just gradually pull away from them. And that's OK, because that's life. There's nowhere that says in life that you have to be friends with people for the rest of your life. So I get the fear. I get the change. I get the fear of change. But on the other side of that fear, it's beautiful. Let's do one more. I'll struggle to make new friends. So in my programs, I show you how to make new friends. And what I found in my own life is that when I chose to be alcohol free, I just started to naturally attract a group of alcohol free people or people who if they drank, they only drank occasionally or it wasn't a necessity for them in order to have a social occasion. So it's not like I'm no, I can't hang out with you because you drink. No. But what I found was the people who were hanging out with me, who were drinking, they didn't need to drink in order to have have dinner or all to catch up. It was just a minor part of their life. And that starts to happen when you naturally elevate your game. You start to naturally attract people who have also elevated their game. And what my experience has been is that people who are playing at the highest level are the ones who have chosen alcohol freedom. OK, we'll do one more, one more bonus one. This is going to be really hard is another one, another concern. Quitting drinking is going to be really, really hard. Here's the thing, if you rely on brute willpower, yes, it's going to be really, really hard. If you go to AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, yes, it's going to be really, really hard. They have a less than 10% success rate of all the people who go there. If you try to get a friend or a wife or a husband to hold you accountable, it's going to be really, really hard because they're going to let you cut corners. They're not going to hold you accountable. OK, if you try to do this, figuring it out on your own without the right method or the right coach, it's going to be really, really hard. But if you do it with appropriate accountability, you do it with a coach or a mentor, someone who is 10 years ahead of where you want to be. So I haven't drunk since 2010. So for the sake of this exercise, if quitting drinking is your goal, I would be an appropriate coach because I haven't drunk in almost 10 years. And then following the proven method and then also skin in the game is the last one I should mention. Skin in the game and skin in the game means you actually invest in yourself, whether that be you hire a personal coach, whether you hire someone in the gym, whether you invest to go into an accountability group group of quitting drinking. When you have skin in the game, when you pay, you pay attention. When you get something for free, you don't value it as much. And so you don't take that action. That has been my experience. So my programs range from as little as for, you know, free, obviously from and then from the paid, it's like $67 right up to $50,000, right? There's a range there. And the people who I found to have the most success are the people who invest, who people who pay, people who buy a program, people who invest money to go into a group. Because when you have that skin in the game, you are called to a higher level. So then when Friday night rolls around and you're tempted to have a drink, you go, oh, hang on a second, I paid all this money. I'm not going to drink. And then you don't drink. Whereas if you just watch this video on YouTube or Facebook, or wherever it is that you're watching it and it's free, you value it, but you don't value it enough to keep you from quitting drinking. So a coach or a mentor, a formula, appropriate accountability and skin in the game is the last one will help you get results. So if some of those fears are resonating with you or coming up in your head, I totally get it perfectly natural. You wouldn't be human if you didn't have those concerns. And take the action anyway. That is true courage, feeling the fear, feeling some worry, but powerfully taking the action anyway, trusting the process. That is how you will get the breakthrough. Leave me a comment down below. I'd love to hear from you. Please do like and subscribe to this channel. Please share this video on your social media with anyone who you think might like to see it and who might benefit from this. Thank you so much for watching. I do lots of these videos. You'll play around on my on my YouTube channel and you'll see lots of other videos helping you to quit drinking. Remember, there are free resources for you down below. Click on those to get started with your alcohol freedom formula today. Thank you so much for listening. I have some free stuff for you. If you go to JamesSwanick.com forward slash guide, I will send you my formula for reducing or quitting alcohol. If you'd like to watch the video versions of these episodes, then you can watch them at my YouTube channel, which is at JamesSwanick. If you'd like to send me a direct message on Instagram, you can do so at JamesSwanick. If you would like to try a three day challenge, a free three day challenge, you can go to JamesSwanick.com forward slash three day challenge. If you would like to try the 30 day no alcohol challenge, you can go to 30 day no alcohol challenge. If you would like to schedule a 15 minute exploratory call with one of my coaches to see how we may be able to help you in your alcohol free journey, you can go to JamesSwanick.com forward slash schedule. And my request is if indeed you enjoyed this episode or you have enjoyed the podcast, would you please go ahead and rate the show in iTunes and would you please write a review? A review might just be a sentence saying, great, listen, hey, this was fantastic. Oh, I really enjoyed this. Whenever you give a rating, whenever you write a review, it surges our podcast up in the rankings, enabling more people to see it and hear it and potentially inspiring someone out there to reduce or quit alcohol and potentially transform their life. So yes, while it does help me to get ratings and to get reviews, you will actually be directly contributing to helping someone's life by having them discover this podcast. So if you are open to inspiring others and to helping me in the process, would you please go ahead and give this episode a ranking? And would you please write a review? Thank you so much for listening and I will catch you on the next one.