In 2019, we’re exploring energy. How it affects us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We’ve hooked up with a series of experts who set us an experiment each month to help us discover a new way of managing our energy.
In September we’re partnering with One Year No Beer (OYNB) to explore a life without alcohol and looking at how taking a break from the booze impacts our energy. They’re not only an awesome bunch of folk, but they really understand the psychology behind how to take a break from alcohol and make it stick.
Week 1 is all about Setting the Foundations. It’s about getting set for the challenge ahead and making sure that we’ve got absolute clarity on why we want to take a break from the booze.
To do this, the guys at OYNB have set us two challenges this week:
Don’t worry, we’re not going to try and answer the existential questions about “why are we here?”, but we do want to think about why we’re taking a month off the booze.
We all know the value of journaling, and there’s lots of amazing research that shows that writing down your thoughts is great for changing your habits and your overall wellbeing. So, we’re kicking off our OYNB challenge by listing all the reasons ‘why’ we’ve decided to take the challenge?
• Why we’re looking for inspiration for a booze-free life?
• What has led us to this point?
• What are we expecting to happen to our energy?
• Why are we hungry for this change?
Use paper, an iPad or laptop, whatever suits you best, but do write all of these reasons down.
You don’t need to share this with anyone, but we’re going to be checking back in with these reasons as we go, so we need to keep them safe.
OK, let’s do this right now, in this moment while the memories are fresh.
Hurrah! We’ve now got a reason to focus on as we go through the next 28 days.
Now we need something to focus on. So…
Look at least four months ahead and find a challenge you want to book onto. Something you feel you couldn't complete today. Something that with training you could achieve and be extremely proud of. If you can just about run 5k, go big and book a half marathon? If you commute on your bike, push yourself and book that 50-mile cycle ride you’ve been looking at
The choice is yours. This is pretty straight forward but is really important. There is only one rule: The challenge should be something that pushes you beyond what you are capable of right now.
Check out some top tips from Andy Ramage at OYNB below.
Having a target like this provides:
• Focus - To drive your exercise routines
• Goal - To help fill the wonderful time you get back from not drinking
• Exercise - To make your body fit and strong
• Confidence - That you are capable of much more than you ever imagined
You will be amazed at what you can achieve with your new body and confidence, so pick something challenging. There are no limits to what we can pick. We just have to push ourselves. We’ve got the next 7 days to research and then we need to book our challenge. We’re off looking for challenges so we’ll report back soon when we’ve got ours.
If you want to join us and follow the entire programme for all 28 days, you can sign-up here: https://www.oneyearnobeer.com/takethechallenge
You can follow our progress and let us know how you get on too @UppingYourElvis.
Big Love,
The Upping Your Elvis Team
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
