 Hi there, this is James Swanick 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. This is James Swanick joining you from Brisbane, Australia. I'm at the Hamilton Lawn Balls Club of all places and today I want to talk about why 90 days alcohol-free gives you the power to then be able to choose to either remain alcohol-free or do moderation. In my experience anything less than 90 days keeps people stuck in stop, start, stop, start. Maybe you go 60 days quitting alcohol but then you have a drink and then the slippery slope gets you. And next thing you know over the space of two or three weeks you're back drinking too as much if not more than when you were drinking before you attempted to quit. So let me just paint the scene for you here. It's 3.27 in the afternoon here on a winter's Australian morning. As I am recording this it is about, I think it's the last week of June, I think it might be June 24 on July the 1st. If you're listening to this before July the 1st we have a 90 day quit drinking program. If you go to jameswanick.com forward slash schedule you can book a free 15 minute strategy session with one of my coaches. It's a free call. You can talk about, talk confidentially of course about your relationship with alcohol. We are going to work to give you a plan for you to quit and stay quit. It's free. Why is it free? Because the only way we know how to help you is by understanding your unique situation and your story. And secondly I know that some of you are going to want help with us executing on the plan that we give you. So some of you will actually end up wanting to work with us in our 90 day and beyond program. So free call at worst case scenario you walk away from that call with a free plan. You go and execute it on your own. Some of you will want some help with executing on that. Then we can book another call and talk about how we will help you. But why 90 days? Like why not 62 days or 6 months or 30 days or 45 days? The neuroscience suggests, well I should say this, there are many conflicting neuroscience studies but most of them seem to suggest that somewhere around 66 days, 90 days, 100 days, 47 days, somewhere around there is how long it takes for we humans to change a habit, to replace a bad habit with a good habit. Now my first business mentor, a man by the name of Tai Lopez, had a product called the 67 steps which came out in 2015, was very successful. He claimed that it took 66 days for a human being to change a habit. That was one of the studies said, so he called his program the 67 steps. It was very successful. Other people say, no it's 100 days, other people say like I said 45, 47 days, somewhere in there. In my experience, every time that I have made a significant change in any area of my life, there's something beautiful around that 90 day, one quarter of a year number or time frame. It's just long enough to get momentum and to see significant change. It's not so short that you don't make a breakthrough. It's not so long that it's boring or dull or it seems unobtainable. It's not so daunting or overwhelming. 90 days, one quarter, maybe a January, February, March or an April, May, June or a July, August, September or a October, November, December. It's something that the human brain can comprehend, latch onto, appreciate, understand, savor and work towards. Now I have been coaching people on how to quit drinking now for six years. I've not started doing this in 2014, I guess officially as a business. I was coaching people for the, you know, since 2010 really just in conversation with friends and family because I quit drinking in 2010. In my experience of helping more than 20,000 people reduce or quit alcohol, 90 days is the sweet spot whereby you overcome the power that alcohol has on you and it gives you that foundation from which you can then choose to do moderation or choose to remain alcohol free. If it's less than that, it's too little of a time. If it's more than that, it doesn't seem, it seems drawn out. It seems like too much of a hurdle, emotional hurdle to begin with and so you don't ever start. It's a sweet spot that the neuroscience seems to suggest is somewhere in that range of time that it takes to change a habit. Now in my 90 day program, which is named Project 90, we have about an 85, 86, 87, 88 percent somewhere around their success rate of people getting to 90 consecutive days alcohol free on their first attempt. Now of the people that we've stayed in contact with who've gone through that program, because I lose touch with some people, but of the people who stayed in contact and give me updates, most of those people have remained alcohol free. People like John Keltner, who's now one of our coaches. In fact, if you book one of those free strategy sessions I was referring to, you may end up actually speaking to John. John is a late 40-something man who lives in Washington State. I'm sorry, that's not true. California, Northern California and has a teenage son and joined our Project 90 program 18 months ago back in December of 2018, and he is still alcohol free to this day. So he got to the 90 days. His goal was to get to 90 days, but then he got to 90 days and he'd already lost, I think, 15 pounds at that time and he thought, well I'll just keep on going and see what happens. And so he just kept on going and now here we are, as I'm recording this in July 2020, he's still alcohol free. If you'd like to see a little video on John sharing his story, you can actually go to jameswanick.com forward slash project 90 testimonials. It's a bit of a long URL I know, but if you go there, you'll be able to see a little video of John sharing his story and you can see a before and after photo of him. I think he's now lost a total of 25 pounds somewhere around there. Another one of our members, Angela Pondsford, Scottish woman, lives in Lenox Head in Australia on the east coast, has two twin daughters or has twin daughters. I probably shouldn't say two twin daughters, should I? Because that would mean four, I think, four kids. If I say twin daughters, that clearly means two. I digress or regress, I'm not sure what the right terminology is. In any case, she has twin daughters and she joined us also December 2018 and she got to the 90 days and she just kept on going and she still hasn't drunk. She's still alcohol free to this day and she loves it and she's choosing to do that and she's got energy and clarity and focus and she feels good and the skin's got better. She's more productive. She's a leader in her business. She manages social media marketing agencies, digital social media marketing agencies and she's someone who's chosen to go forward alcohol free. There's another member we had, Joe Worley. By the way, I'm mentioning these members' names because they have allowed me to share their names publicly. Just to be clear, everything in our group is 100% private and confidential within the group and only those people who I'm mentioning now have agreed to have me share their name and their story publicly. If indeed you join any of my programs, then we're not going to share your name publicly unless of course you give me permission to do so. But Joe Worley is someone who was drinking too much. I think Joe was late 40s early 50s, was married, he tried AA, didn't like it, kept him in shame. He didn't fit into his 34 inch waist jeans anymore. He was overweight. He joined the 90 day program. He lost a ton of weight. His wife said that she finally got her husband back again. They were feeling very disconnected, but now she's super happy and he's happy and he jokingly said happy wife, happy life or what's the other phrase? It's not as gender specific, happy home, happy home. No, I can't remember. I've lost it. Maybe if you're listening and you know what it is because I mean happy wife, happy life maybe be construed as a bit sexist these days in 2020. That was not my intention, but I think there's some other phrase I heard recently which was more like a happy life, not happy wife, happy life, happy something else. I'm not getting it. Please help me out listeners. Message me at James at jameswanick.com and let me know what it is if you know what I'm trying to say. In any case, his marriage and his home life, his relationship with his wife improved dramatically and he is someone that got to the 90 days and then a couple weeks I think after the 90 days he chose to have a drink and then on occasion over the last I think year since he completed those 90 days he has on occasion had our drink and it's absolutely fine. So he's not so committed that he wants to be completely alcohol free for life. He's choosing to have a drink on occasion. He's got power back over alcohol. Here's what people in my experience do wrong and this is this is based from me observing, communicating, coaching with 20,000 plus people now on this particular subject. Those people who start off by saying I'm going to just do moderation, I'm going to reduce, very rarely do at least consistently and that's because they haven't yet got the power over alcohol. They haven't yet gone those 90 consecutive days, broken the back of it, rewired their brain to understand the concept that you do not need alcohol to relieve you of stress. You don't need alcohol to fit in socially. You don't need alcohol to have courage. You choose to be alcohol free because you love the clarity and the focus and the energy and the great sleep and the beautiful skin and the great body and everything that being alcohol free brings you. So from that foundation of having gone three months alcohol free you can then powerfully just say ah no not tonight or yeah okay I'll have one. Or no I'm not drinking this month or I'm not drinking midweek or someone offers you a drink could you? Yeah all right I'll just have one and then you have one and it's not like oh thank goodness I get to drink. Oh thank god it's been so long I've been in this prison for so long finally I get to enjoy myself. No that's not it because the enjoyment and the pleasure comes from being alcohol free consistently. In my opinion all of the pain and the suffering comes from having this attractively packaged poison that we call alcohol because it is a poison it is a toxin. The World Health Organization says that there is zero amount of alcohol that has any benefit to you whatsoever. There is zero zero zero benefit to you drinking alcohol zero zero. In fact it's minus something that's how bad it is for you and yet society has tricked us into believing that it's normal it's something that we do to engage to communicate to correspond to bond. I've been doing it alcohol free for 10 and a half years no one would ever accuse me of being disconnected or dull or boring or anti-social. So only coming at it from breaking the back of alcohol first 90 consecutive days alcohol free can you then have the foundation to choose. Now I would offer you this when you go into doing this 90 days into getting to 90 consecutive days if you want to celebrate with a drink on day 90 I will feel that I have failed you because my job is to get you to rewire your brain or to rewire your brain for you or do it with you to a point where you're like wow I see the world differently and now I see the world through a different set of lenses. Now I have this understanding that the special occasion and that the fun and the joy and the beauty and the energy and the clarity comes from being consistently alcohol free and I choose to do that and I step into that and I am not in a prison not drinking I'm freed from the prison not drinking I'm in the prison when I'm drinking I'm free when I'm not drinking and if you're doing this 90 days 90 days just got to get to 90 days then I'm going to have a drink then you are looking at it and feeling into it as if you're in a prison and what a prison is all want to do I want to get out of prison and so to put it in this analogy if you're like in 90 days and you're pleading looking for hoping just wanting to get to 90 days to celebrate then you feel like you're in a prison you're going to want to break out of the prison and be free and being free means you're going to drink the way you used to drink and it's going to cause all those problems again the pain the suffering the extra weight the poor diet broken relationships which is why we rewire your brain inside of our coaching to have you go yes alcohol free is awesome I love this the freedom is being alcohol free I'm choosing this I'm going to go to the pub and the bar and the restaurant with friends and I'm going to powerfully order soda water ice and a piece of lime we're going to powerfully order water I'm going to love it as I'm talking now I'm getting very thirsty it's now 341 in the afternoon I'm about to go into the Hamilton lawn involves club have a very good Wi-Fi here I'm going to do a little bit of work for the rest of the afternoon I'm going to powerfully walk straight into the bar in between the people who were drinking beer in the afternoon go to the barman and I'm going to say may I have a soda water ice and a piece of lime please he's going to say certainly he's going to pour it and hand it to me I'm going to walk away I'm going to sit down at my at one of the tables here log on to the Wi-Fi I'm going to do some work and I'm going to do it while drinking on my soda water ice and a piece of lime later on when 6 30 comes around and more revelers come in and there's more people having drinks at the end of the day at work I'm going to go up to the bar again and I'm going to say can I please grab a soda water ice and a piece of lime I'm going to squeeze the lime into the pint and stir it around I'm going to drink it it's going to taste delicious and rinse and repeat sometimes I'll change the drink up I have chosen to remain alcohol free for 10 and a half years I may drink on occasion again maybe don't feel like it don't even think about it it's not even a big deal for me I'm not like drawing a line in the sand and saying I will never drink again I'm just saying I just choose to be alcohol free and I love it I'm just going to get into my car here so the wind will will change let's get in I'm now in the parking lot or as we say in Australia the car park of the Hamilton Bowles Club here while I finish this off so 90 days that's the amount of time 45 days is too short 30 days is gives you a glimpse like it's a good introduction you can do the 30 day no alcohol challenge that I have which is a nice little baby step introduction into this world just to get a feel for it but certainly the neuroscience and the my experience is is that people who do the 30 day challenge most don't tend to remain alcohol free they feel great but then they're drinking again not not soon after finishing some people do go on which is amazing most people go back to drinking and they look at it more as like a dry january sober october or kind of thing something that they'll do that was you know it was nice to do that one time that was interesting felt great felt amazing but not they'll go straight back into the matrix and into the societal drift where they just drink normally and put on more weight and feel crappy and sleep poorly and perceive their life to be mediocre compared with what it could be so if you feel drawn to a higher level if you feel like you're being held back from something in your life if you feel compelled to want to step into something bigger and generate health wealth love and happiness then I invite you to go for at least 90 consecutive days alcohol free statistically speaking if you try to do it on your own it's unlikely that you will succeed I'm rooting for you those five pillars I mentioned before accountability fun community having skin in the game which means investing in yourself what did I say community accountability fun skin in the game I'm missing one more community accountability coaching community accountability coaching fun I'm missing one thing I've said it so many times I've forgotten it how did I forget it let's try it again coaching accountability community fun skin in the game there they are five those five pillars working in conjunction will get you everything you want not just in quitting drinking but in anything coaching community accountability fun skin in the game skin in the game means you invest in yourself time money something's free you don't value it you don't pay close enough attention to it if you invest to be in a group or coaching mastermind a group of like-minded people for example you pay money each month to be in that you watch it you pay attention to it you focus on it as soon as you pay $7 a month on Netflix you'll start watching Netflix right but I would suggest you probably don't use YouTube as much which is free when you pay you pay attention your energy and your attention goes where your money flows or your energy and attention flows towards where your money goes because you value it so that's why 90 days in my experience is the most powerful if you would like a free strategy session with either John Keltner or one of our former clients turned coaches or possibly me or someone else then you can go to JamesSwanick.com forward slash schedule 15 minute free call we're going to help develop a strategy plan for you to reduce or quit drinking you'll walk away from that call with a plan if you want help executing the plan then we can book another call from that call and then you know two or three days later or a week later we can speak again and we'll walk you through how we can help you thanks for listening hope this was helpful please do subscribe to this podcast if you would leave a review I would so appreciate that I've got a little ad here at the end on the closing credits here where I request a review so I'll leave it up to the ad part to to share a little bit more on that thank you so much for your support I support you and I look forward to talking to you on the next one see you 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