I can come up with a million reasons to drink. One of the ways to counteract that is to have as many as possible reasons not to drink. I have discussed this many times.
Some of my reasons for not drinking are to be a responsible parent and husband and to be a responsible business owner. However, it is the more specific activities that help week after week. As of now, those are: basketball, softball, public speaking, important business appointments and any time I have to drive somewhere. I need to make sure I have a constant stream of these activities scheduled each week to give me enough excuses not to drink, especially on the weekends.
This past weekend I ended up with 12 drinks, 3 under my 15 max. The reason was because I had a very important speech contest last night (Mon). Not only did I need a clear head to practice on Sunday, I needed to be at my best come speech time. So, my normal 5 or 6 Sunday drinks did not fit into my schedule.
As it turns out, I had 3 on Sunday, all after 5pm when I was done practicing, but still too many. I will admit, yesterday (Sun) was a tough day. The drinking urges were very strong, but the desire to do well in the contest was stronger. I decided to give myself a reward, however, and allow myself to have the 3 drinks I was under last week after the speech contest last night.
I won the contest and had the drinks. I enjoyed them and felt I earned them. For the record, I know this is cheating, but I am counting them for last week. Again, I think I earned it.
The real good news is that winning the contest gave me another reason not to drink, that is the next contest. At the next level, I will be delivering the speech to over 300 people in May. Since the next contest is on a Saturday, I plan to not drink Mon-Sat, or at least until after the speech on Sat. I will need to be at my best, and that means no alcohol.
