Willpower is a funny thing and if you’ve ever dieted, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

You start your day with a healthy protein shake for breakfast, including that ever-so-popular kale, celery, spinach, etc. Lunch involves a healthy salad with some low fat dressing and grilled chicken. But by 4:00 p.m. your cravings are out of control and you’re shoveling donuts and cookies in your face. Now the rest of the day is a calorie carnival - because after all, you’ve already fallen off the wagon, tipped it over, and started it on fire.

Much the same, I think it’s safe to say that most of us have tried to use ‘willpower’ to control our drinking, but most of us have also failed miserably. Can you relate?

Recent studies have been conducted to examine this topic of willpower and, interestingly, what they found is that willpower is much like the life of your phone’s battery. When the battery (or willpower in this case) is low, there’s not much we can do until it’s recharged.

Did you know that making decisions requires you to use some of that energy reserve of willpower? Stressful days at work or stressful days at home with your kids - whatever it is that you do during your day... it’s sucking life out of that energy reserve. So by the time it’s 4 or 5pm (or when ever your shift is close to over), we have exhausted our power supply - and it’s a whole lot harder to say no to that happy hour with margaritas and chips and salsa (or the donut we could’ve passed on at 8 am).

There is hope! If we can get the different parts of our minds (subconscious and conscious) to agree that we don’t WANT or NEED to drink.....there’s no willpower needed - because there’s no decision to be made. Your mind will be in harmony with the decision to abstain from drinking. Happy hour with chips, salsa and an iced tea still sounds amazing!

PS - In today’s ACT, we look at Alcohol, Relaxation, and Stress Relief. We seem to have this belief that drinking relaxes us and helps us decompress. Where and when was that belief formed? Was it from childhood and watching our folks unwind with a cocktail? Or maybe watching our favorite TV cops drink after a stressful day on the job? Or perhaps not until college where drinking is a right of passage after finals? No matter where it came from, we’ll talk about the truth!

I cannot wait for you to dig into this ACT!