1000 Days Sober Podcast

The Gang

A bucketful of crabs. One tries to leave. The rest drag it back down. I guess crabs like the company of other crabs. I walk through the door, hoping that ‘my spot’ is free. The long table, the one I never use because I can't 'plug-in', is full, as it typically is at this time of the morning. Crabs sit in every seat. Faces twisted and contorted by the ravages of wind, rain and sea. Eastern European methinks. United by coffee, nostalgia, and a healthy dose of 'Once Upon a Time.' Laughter. Seriousness. Presence. One of them breaks free for a smoke, and unlike the crabs in the bucket, one or two join him. The world is a whirlwind of road rage, yet inside this building, there is unity. Love. Camaraderie. The only blood comes from the beetroot hidden deep beneath layers of chicken, lettuce and tomatoes. There is not an alcoholic drink in sight. There is no need for a bouncer on this door. There is no list. You can all come in. Communion. And it’s not just the craggy old crabs. I look around and see people of all shapes and sizes debating the fashionable attributes of a Levi jacket, the best way to build a picket fence, and how to wean a baby from the breast. We think we need alcohol to socialise, and yet, everywhere you look, people are managing without it. There's not a shot in sight. It’s not the drug that creates the anticipatory delight of a night out. It’s the feeling of freedom, and the possibility of connection. Alcohol offers no freedom. Each drink disassociates you from the world. Blink. You're a zombie; wheelchair-carcass, phlegm hanging from the corner of your mouth like a stalactite; hypodermic needle sticking out of your arm trying desperately to find the floor. You don't need alcohol to have a good time. You only THINK you do. And it’s this lie, this con, this red herring that we talk about in today’s Alcohol & Addiction podcast. The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, And we Refuse to be Anonymous Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/

1,000 Steps

A Mexican wave begins when one person stands up. The skyscrapers reach out to the stars brick by brick. The hairdresser makes you look beautiful by killing one split end at a time. Becoming someone that doesn’t drink alcohol is the same. One step at a time. Registration for the February TTAA Taster ends in three days. The TTAA Taster is designed to help you become someone that doesn’t drink alcohol for one month - one day, one assignment, one thought at a time. Take your first step, today. Head to www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk and sign up. The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, And we Refuse to be Anonymous In our bid to improve value for you at TTAA, we would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes answering this brief survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5XLGM3G Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/

You Drink The Average Amount of Alcohol as The Five People You Spend The Most Time With

John, my friend in his 70s who believes an alien race rules the world, explains how he’s immortal, and has lived numerous lives, and remembers all of them. I can remember two lives, barely. In my first life, I was someone who drank alcohol. I lived in a small mining village of 3,000 people, I worked on the railroads, and I spent my time drinking in the Wyndham Pub and my house, alone, or with a small group of friends. That life doesn’t feel like moonlight fighting for survival amid the rays of the morning sun. It feels like an abortion. A life, torn from me; so painfully, that my memory protects me by cranking up the volume on AFAF FM. I have a new life; one where I am someone that doesn’t drink alcohol. I am a vagabond. I interview professional poker players to pay the bills, and I help people save their lives in my spare time. I work hard, and spend my time playing with my family, or eating and philosophising with my friends. I didn’t compose a new tune. The new tune composed a new me. When I became someone that doesn’t drink alcohol I didn’t stop there. Incrementally, laughing Buddha by laughing Buddha, I made changes in my life that aligned with the energy of someone that didn’t drink alcohol. Environment. Career. Love. Health. Spirituality. Relationships. I don’t spend time with the people from my first life. I love some of them, others not so much, and I am sure if I were to see them again we would enjoy a nostalgic whale spout of a blow. But I don’t miss them. I hardly remember them. It’s as if I fell asleep on a bed of poisoned poppies and woke up somewhere and someone else. Jim Rohn proposed that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Jen Sincero said you earn the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I believe you drink the average amount of alcohol as the five people you spend the most time with. Who are your five? The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, And we Refuse to be Anonymous In our bid to improve value for you at TTAA, we would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes answering this brief survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5XLGM3G Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/

Stand Up Comedy Genius Norm MacDonald on Being Someone That Doesn't Drink Alcohol

David Letterman referred to Norm Macdonald as “maybe the smartest guy in comedy,” and Jerry Seinfeld described his approach as “sophisticated dumbness.” I interviewed the former Saturday Night Live star in the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas during a poker tournament he was playing in. During the interview, I learned that Macdonald is someone that doesn't drink alcohol and asked if I could also interview him for the AA Podcast, and he agreed. A few nights later, I watched Macdonald perform standup, and it was the funniest show I had ever seen. What made the moment special, was Macdonald had made a significant portion of his act about our interview. We talked about a lot of stuff in our 25-minutes together, but the main takeaway for me was the ability to speak to a creative genius about the difference in performing and writing when drinking and when not, as I know members of the Strive movement worry about making this transition. The interview was very impromptu. I have missed a few minutes off the video, and there is a lot of background noise as we are in the middle of the poker room, but I am sure it won’t take away from the pleasure of listening to one of the world’s stop standup artists talking about why he doesn’t drink alcohol. Norm Macdonald has two shows on Netflix: Norm Macdonald Has a Show, and Hitler's Dog, Gossip & Trickery. Check out today's podcast here. The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, And We Refuse to be Anonymous Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/

The 6 Reasons People Don't Take the Taster to Become Someone That Doesn't Drink Alcohol

I don’t need you or your experiences to be someone that doesn’t drink alcohol. I’m not in a hurry to be someone that doesn’t drink alcohol. I don’t have the time to be someone that doesn’t drink alcohol. I am not willing to invest money in being someone that doesn’t drink alcohol. I don’t have the desire to be someone that doesn’t drink alcohol. I don’t trust you, or your experiences. Why are you not leaping? Choose an excuse. Cross it out. Think again. What’s the real reason you’re not taking the February 1 Taster? If you want to join us and get to feel what it's like to have no alcohol in your system for a month, then here is the link: www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster

Chubby

Those toes will never know the feel of a ballet shoe. The sunlight that scorches through the clouds; she will eat that too. One year old, barely two, the gatekeepers of her stomach keep shovelling it through. Cannonballs of sugar fired into her veins - parents holding the wick, preparing to flicker. How long will it linger? It’s a forever thing; you don’t know that; I want to call you a silly twat, take you to town with ball and bat. But here’s the thing. It’s a lack of education. Your daughter is a bull, and if you keep feeding her like that, if you do not teach her the wisdom of a healthy life, then every single Starbucks and McDonalds will look like a matador’s muleta. And she will charge straight into the gates of hell. And you will lose her, and she will lose herself. Use your lightsaber, not as a way to cut her dreams in two, but to illuminate her chances of getting through this life without being broken into a million different pieces by all those sticks and stones. The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, And We Refuse to be Anonymous I wrote that little ditty after seeing parents shovelling a dessert down the throat of an obese child barely older than one, and in today’s podcast episode I wonder if that parental act of abuse is any different than drinking alcohol? Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/

Exhaustion

Another fantastic poem by Rupi Kaur in her collection The Sun and Her Flowers. "This place makes me the kind of exhausted that has nothing to do with sleep and everything to do with the people around me." Quiz question: What places and people exhaust you? Please share with me at thetruthaboutalcohol@gmail.com The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, and We Refuse to Be Anonymous Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/

Are Your GPS Co-ordinates Set? Do You Know The Way to an Alcohol-Free Life?

Outside the town is a sign. “Population: a million people that don’t drink alcohol.” I’ve ripped the thorn from the rose, stuck it on the bridge of my nose, and I'm dragging my feet in the dirt, snorting. Wave the red flag. I dare you. I double fucking dare you. That’s where I’m going, and nothing’s going to stop me. I locked the GPS coordinates in back in 2009 when I took the vow. Then she left me. I felt like the rind stuck in a world of sweet marmalade. Who would want to taste me, now? One day, as the man beside me, went searching for the smell under his fingernails with a knife, and the woman in stockings gyrated in front of me to the beat of the thin white duke, I asked for a Sambuca. And another. And another. A month went by. Lost. Confused. Unsure. Values and virtues scattered to the wind like dandelion seeds held in the magnificently manicured mitten of the monster. Moon. Mars. Nowhere was far enough for me. Then, my son pushed the bottle aside, reached into my heart, and switched my GPS back on. A light flickered. I heard the voice in my head tell me to turn right. Then, in the distance, I saw the sign. “Population: a million people that don’t drink alcohol.” I put my foot down, and I’ve been kicking up a fuss ever since. Once you take the vow, it’s not a question of IF you’ll become someone that doesn’t drink alcohol, it’s WHEN, and that’s what we talk about in today’s episode. The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, and We Refuse to Be Anonymous Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/

The NY Times Best-Selling Author Maria Konnikova on Connection; Authenticity and More

Here is the first of a series of interviews I did with poker players during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas in the mid-January. The content has a poker flavour to it, but I try to keep my interview questions more related to life, and each one that I post contains some element of wisdom that we can learn from, and apply to our journey in becoming someone that doesn’t drink alcohol. Maria Konnikova is a writer, psychologist, and poker player from New York. Maria's two books: The Confidence Game and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes are New York Times bestsellers. I met her last year in the Bahamas after she’d convinced the poker legend, Erik Seidel, to teach her to be a poker player for her new book The Biggest Bluff, and went on to win a quarter of a million dollars under Erik’s tutelage. In this discussion, we talk about inauthenticity, status, and feeling awkward in social situations, before finishing with a little game I like to call Projection. Enjoy. The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, and We Refuse to Be Anonymous Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/

How to End the Feeling That You're 'Missing Out' When You Stop Drinking Alcohol

I feel like the plane crashed, and as I walk through the wreckage, I realise that I am the only person left on this earth. I try to talk to the puffins, and the seagulls, but they don’t even know my name. The bars are wet, but I am dry. I can feel the emptiness rising. My collarbone is the lip from whence the world quenches their thirst. A slight ache below the neck. Beats swirling around my mind reminding me of another alone time, only that time, the butterflies played hopscotch in my belly, and oil rockers tickled my ribs. Louise, a Striver, says - I know I am happier when I don’t drink, but I feel like I miss out if I don’t. Missing out. Missing out on what? That’s what we talk about in today’s episode of The Alcohol & Addiction podcast. The Truth About Alcohol We Are Not Alcoholics, and We Refuse to Be Anonymous Join Us & Our Community TTAA Taster: http://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAA%20Taster TTAA Intensive: https://www.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/p/TTAAIntensive Strive Community: https://strive.thetruthaboutalcohol.co.uk/