You Said You'd Scroll Less Over the Holidays

I’ve tracked my alcohol consumption for several years at this point, and I found a funny pattern going into the end of the year.

By the way, my name is Flint Mitchell from iAlign.

I went from a life of stagnation, overthinking, scrolling, and feeling behind to a life of clear, consistent, confident action, authenticity, and freedom

For context, when I looked back at last year, I averaged around probably 15 drinks per month.

Some months were zero, some months were 10, some months were 20

I think it was August or maybe last September, I had around 30 during the course of the month.

That was my peak.

And now this year, I generally average around five alcoholic drinks per month.

Once again, some months are zero, some months are eight or 10.

I went to my brother’s wedding recently, And I think I had three drinks three nights in a row.

So there’s my entire month’s allotment basically for September all wrapped up.

Which leads to one observation.

Which is the amount of alcohol I drink in a given month is generally proportional to the events that I attend I also go to plenty of events and don’t drink anything.

But there are certain events like a bachelor party or a wedding or certain types of shows where I decide, I think that would actually be fun to have a drink That’s one pattern.

Another pattern, which I think is incredibly common, is that every single Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve and Christmas night, I drink probably twice as much as I normally do.

For example, the last couple Thanksgivings, I think I had six or seven drinks because I was around tons of family.

We had a champagne at lunch.

I had my yearly Bloody Mary because my cousin makes a really good one.

I don’t normally like them.

And then there’s kind of just a slow momentum of having more drinks throughout that Thanksgiving Day leading into dinner.

Is there anything wrong with me for doing this?

No.

Does it knock me completely off track, making me have brain fog and feel shitty and poor sleep and poor focus for a week and reduce my ability to manage the other stressors in my life?

Absolutely yes.

There is absolutely a consequence to that drinking

The main observation I want to make here though is the collection of the data that leads to the identification of the pattern.

Because our patterns are what dictate our success

If we don’t identify our patterns and then choose to disengage or to engage from them, depending on if they’re healthy or not, if they’re supporting us or not, value aligned or not, then we are allowing condition to dictate how we will perform at any given point.

So those patterns of alcohol in my life with respect to specific holidays predictably led me to be more off track for the following week or two after that I chose for myself that I didn’t want that to affect me in the way that it did.

Doesn’t mean I have to completely eliminate alcohol, but it does mean that I should identify healthier ways of including it into my life if I do want it

‘ Cause the thing I don’t want is I don’t want to wake up with a headache or the grogginess or not be able to focus for a week or two on end Because some subconscious conditioning or pattern led me to that.

It wasn’t an intentional choice

So do you ever find yourself telling yourself before something or during a specific time or after something happens that you’re going to do less of that thing?

You’re gonna eat less, you’re gonna scroll less, you’re gonna procrastinate less, maybe you’re gonna drink less, or just generally be healthier during the holidays.

And then you find yourself in the midst of them with headaches and grogginess.

You avoid your mirror ’cause you don’t really wanna look at yourself, both your body, but also potentially look yourself in the eyes There’s nothing wrong with you if you have that experience.

It’s just worth recognizing that you have some specific pattern that it would be beneficial to collect some information or data about so that you can choose to either intentionally include it in your life or to not

Because just realize that telling yourself you’re going to do better without collecting any of the information isn’t going to change anything

Which leads to a pretty interesting opportunity for you.

The end of the year, including this one that’s upcoming, is filled with many predictable triggers.

That lead many people to overconsume based off of their subconscious or conditioned patterns that are not chosen, they’re unintentional, which end up with consequences like the headaches, and the gained weight, and the lost focus, and the distraction that lead back into the loop of self-shame.

We attack ourself for not handling things as well as we would prefer, or not getting the results that we want, or by falling behind, which leads back into the avoidant behaviors, further destroys our productivity at the end of the year, leading us to actually not finish our goals or our responsibilities by the end of it.

And then it kills any momentum that we might have going into the next one

All you need to do in order to start changing this process is to establish a clear methodology of how you can create awareness over your specific triggers and patterns such that you can collect data on them and use that data to alter the way you behave going forward.

These holidays will either break you or they will make you, and they will make you if you are intentional about how you prepare for them.

Anyways, I’m Flint Mitchell from iAlign.

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Peace.