Are you up for the ninety day challenge? 

The first thing to remember is that this is designed to be a challenge! Ninety days of committing to a promise to yourself. What will it be? Alcohol’s a good one for many of us. Losing weight is a traditional one after the festivities. Cutting down on meat is a clear winner in the current climate. Committing to no plastic. Writing a blog. Learning a language. You name it! That’s the easy bit. 

The real challenge is not actually to commit to a promise to yourself. It’s to keep talking about it with others who have also taken up the challenge. What this is really about is getting a conversation going. We all know people who have taken up a challenge like this and floundered in the first couple of weeks. Quietly. Alone. Never talking about it. 

That’s not what this is about. You see, the point isn’t really the promise. The point is that you’re willing to track the experiment. This way, you’ll actually help not just yourself, but everyone else. The thing about being human is that we tend to go quiet when it’s not going well. What if, instead, we shared the experience in a safe place? 

Today was good. Yesterday was not so good. What if we had a group who didn’t judge, but cheered us on anyhow. Shared tips. Shared stories. Some people may choose total abstention – booze free, no compromises. Others may choose what Kenneth Anderson (https://hams.cc/book/) calls HAMS (harm reduction, abstinence, moderation, support) – counting the drinks, the smokes, each day, with a determination to reduce each week, or month. Maybe a day of alcohol every two or three days, but playing a numbers game. Keeping it light. Keeping a record. Getting support. These are the keys to getting better at getting better! Bring it on! 

Email john@canarygreen.org and let him know what your challenge is, at the end of 90 days we will check in with you to see how you got on.