You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart episode 224.

Whether you want to drink less or stop drinking, this podcast will help you change the habit

from the inside out. We're challenging conventional wisdom about why people drink

and why it can be hard to resist temptation. No labels, no judgment,

just practical tools to take control of your desire and stop worrying about your drinking.

Now, here's your host, Rachel Hart.

All right, well welcome back everyone. So last week we talked about the fact that you don't

need to decide that you're never going to drink for the rest of your life.

Even right now, if you're drinking more than you want to, even right now, if you're struggling

to say no, you don't have to make a decision for the rest of your life. You can, if you want to,

if it feels exciting and empowering, but by no means do you have to make that decision?

And in fact, being told that you have to make a decision for the rest of your life,

you can actually get in the way of progress. And today, we're actually going to tackle another

really deep seated belief. We're going to tackle the idea that progress in changing the habit is

reflected in how many days you've gone without drinking. So this idea that you need to count

your days of not drinking. And that's what matters most. And by the way, if you do drink after

a period of not drinking, you need to start over. You need to go back to counting from day one.

Now, I really do believe that this message causes so much more harm than help for people. And

not only that, it doesn't actually reflect how habit change works in the brain. So everything

that I'm talking about today, the problems with counting days, the problems of fixating on a streak,

it applies for changing your relationship with alcohol, but it really applies for everything

in your life. It's true when it comes to sticking to your diet, it's true when it comes to adopting

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