The Daily Check-In for Tuesday, August 10th: Just for today, I am NOT drinking!
*We may be anonymous strangers on the internet, but we have one thing in common. We may be a world apart, but we're here together!*
**Welcome to the 24 hour pledge!**
I'm pledging myself to not drinking today, and invite you to do the same.
Maybe you're new to /r/stopdrinking and have a hard time deciding what to do next. Maybe you're like me and feel you need a daily commitment or maybe you've been sober for a long time and want to inspire others.
It doesn't matter if you're still hung over from a three day bender or been sober for years, if you just woke up or have already completed a sober day. For the next 24 hours, lets not drink alcohol!
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**This pledge is a statement of intent.** Today we don't set out *trying* not to drink, we make a conscious decision *not to drink*. It sounds simple, but all of us know it can be hard and sometimes impossible. The group can support and inspire us, yet only one person can decide if we drink today. Give that person the right mindset!
What happens if we can't keep to our pledge? We give up or try again. And since we're here in /r/stopdrinking, we're not ready to give up.
**What this is:** A simple thread where we commit to not drinking alcohol for the next 24 hours, posting to show others that they're not alone and making a pledge to ourselves. Anybody can join and participate at any time, you do not have to be a regular at /r/stopdrinking or have followed the pledges from the beginning.
**What this isn't:** A good place for a detailed introduction of yourself, directly seek advice or share lengthy stories. You'll get a more personal response in your own thread.
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This post goes up at:
- US - Night/Early Morning
- Europe - Morning
- Asia and Australia - Evening/Night
A link to the current Daily Check-In post can always be found near the top of the sidebar.
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Good morning, SD! Our wonderful DCI community has shared some fantastic suggestions on establishing healthy routines this week. But how do you turn good intentions into a permanent change of habit?
My life is littered with the debris of abandoned resolutions and it can bruise my self-esteem, what with dodging the dusty yoga mat and avoiding the abandoned bicycle. Recently I’ve been reading about the Intention-Behavior gap, which is just the difference between what people say they are going to do (intention), and what they actually do (behavior). Every evening I go to sleep with the intention of getting up as soon as the morning alarm goes off, but when the gentle chiming starts at 5:45am, I hit snooze. Why? Who is running this show anyway??? I’m not alone in my flakiness - research suggests that only 50% of intentions get converted into action. Here are a few suggestions I’ve found from behavioral scientists researching the Intention-Behavior gap that might help:
- Set a realistic, clear, and firm intention
· Look at the Daily Check In 24-hour pledge above for a great example of a well-worded intention. For my snooze issue, I might say “I commit to getting up and making the bed as soon as the alarm goes off every day for the rest of this week”.
- Remember to act
· A lot of good intentions fail because we just forget about them after a while or get distracted by other things. Oops, I was meant to be getting up, yet here I am messing about on Reddit! Tracking how you are doing helps you stay the course and adapt where needed, like checking your sober counter, or marking your wins on a calendar.
- Prepare contingency plans
· Life happens but having if/then contingency plans decided up front means you need to rely less on limited willpower stores in the heat of the moment when something crops up. If I’m struggling to sleep, then I will try a guided meditation. If my workmates ask me to go with them to the pub at lunch, then I will….?
If you’d like to share, what do you do to turn your intentions into reality?
IWNDWYT