I'm dedicated to helping people moderate their use of alcohol. Some consider this to be controversial and I want to explain why I'm focused on moderation vs quitting drinking.
It’s worthwhile.
The world is full of people who want to drink less and to drink differently. They realize that their drinking is adversely affecting their physical and mental health, their relationships, and their ability to create progress and growth in their lives. However for any number of reasons they can not imagine a life without drinking and therefore quitting is completely off the table.
I have seen in my life how changing my relationship to drinking has been hugely beneficial. Drinking less is better than drinking more. However I have no desire to quit completely and don't see any need to do so. This middle ground is a fine place to be.
It’s a worthy challenge.
It can be more difficult to sustainably and reliably moderate than to just quit drinking. It requires a higher level of commitment to mastery of the core tools, namely awareness, emotional management, and planning. These same tools are the foundation for any type of transformation and growth, and by perfecting use of them around alcohol moderation, you build these powerful skills that you can use in any arena – physical transformation, business building, career growth, and dating and relationships.
There’s not much support available for moderation.
There are many avenues of support for those wanting to quit. However there are many fewer resources available for people who want to moderate, and in fact want-to-be-moderators are excluded from much of the support available to abstainers. I believe that these people deserve help too.
You can always quit.
The key to either moderation or quitting is eliminating the overdesire that drives the overdrinking. Once that desire is eliminated, by breaking the cue-desire-reward loop, and by changing your conscious and unconscious stories around drinking, some people realize that they really don’t like drinking that much. They find that their life is just better and easier without it.