You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart episode 279.

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 is your host, Rachel Hart.

Well, welcome back everyone.

We are talking about compelling reasons today and the importance of compelling reasons.

And I'm going to give you a new framework to really think about this.

So I've talked about this a bunch on the podcast before.

I think we have two other episodes that specifically deal with how to find and work with your compelling reason.

And it really is important to be able to do this, right?

Because if you're going to change the habit, if you're going to move towards what is uncomfortable, that's what's required and habit change to do the uncomfortable thing, you've got to find a compelling reason.

You've got to find something that will help you inspire change.

Now I think we talk about compelling reasons in a really backwards way.

And so a lot of times the conversation around compelling reasons is like, well listen, you'll finally get your act together when things get bad enough.

So it's this idea of if you hit rock bottom, then you will finally be compelled to take action.

I will tell you, for someone who does not consider that she ever hit rock bottom, when I was just so stuck

and so unable to figure out why my drinking was something that really did feel kind of outside of my control and why I couldn't learn my lesson and why I kept repeating the same mistakes.

When I was really stuck in that place in my life, I vividly remember thinking, well, maybe things haven't gotten bad enough, which is kind of a crazy thought to think.

It was like, maybe if things get worse, I'll finally change. That is not the message we want to be sending to people that things just have to get really bad and then you're going to get your act together.

So we talk about compelling reasons often. It's like, okay, yeah, just, you know, if things get really bad, you'll finally get your shit together.

And I don't think that's a helpful way to talk about compelling reasons.

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