Journey to the Sunnyside

Welcome to Journey to the Sunnyside, the podcast where we have thoughtful conversations to explore the science of habits, uncover the secrets to mindful living, and, of course, inspire your own mindful drinking journey. This podcast is brought to you by Sunny Side, the number one alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free 15 day trial. I'm your host, Mike Hardenbrook, published author, neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert. Welcome to another one of these 10 minute Mondays.

I'm gonna walk us through an exercise today that was very impactful for me in the past. But before I do, let me ask you, if you're finding benefit from these, please email me, mike@sunnyside.co. And if you really wanna support the podcast, the best way you can do that is by leaving an honest review on Apple or whatever podcast platform you're listening to. So far, I've heard from many of you, and I'm really enjoying the feedback. So keep it going, and I'll keep making these.

Alright. So let's get into this 10 minute exercise that I have for you today, and it's really based around the fact that our daily decisions, our daily habits really impact our big picture goals in life. But even though that makes it easier to chunk it down from a habits perspective, it makes it more difficult to see that what we're actually doing today has a big impact on our life. And so I'm gonna walk you through this 10 minute exercise, and I'm gonna be honest. It can be a little bit painful.

It also can be really beneficial, and I've done this in the past myself. It really gave me something that I could look at whenever I'm questioning on whether or not I'm gonna stay on track with what my goals are, and I'm reminded of it. So this thing can be very impactful, and what it's gonna do is we're gonna jump into a time machine, and we're going to look at our habits now and what they would look like in the future. So everybody has their own reasons why they want to cut back or maybe take a break or eventually quit. All those options are great if they align to your goals.

So whatever those goals are, there's usually a reason behind it. Maybe you went to the doctor and they said, hey. You know, your blood tests came back. You're fine, but you might wanna think about cutting back on alcohol. Maybe you have a bowl around health as far as fitness.

You wanna lose some weight, maybe tone up, or whatever that is. Be able to run a marathon, something around fitness. Maybe you had a few run ins socially that didn't go so great because maybe you're overindulging at one time. Whatever the reason is, that is personal to you, and that is what's motivating you. And what can get lost is in the daily decisions here, and so I'm gonna make it easier for us to see the grand picture.

So I want you to think about what your motivation to change is. If I didn't change this today, what would it look like in 5 years from now? So if it was the blood test example that I gave, maybe in 5 years, you're having a more serious conversation with your doctor. Maybe in 5 years, you haven't moved anywhere towards your goal for your fitness. Maybe you've added some weight.

Maybe you just don't feel as energetic as you want to be at the 5 year mark. Maybe you've ruined some relationships along the way because you continue to overindulge in social situations, and maybe that's not the best answer for you. So I want you to think in terms of what would it look like in 5 years if you did nothing to change your habits and relationship with alcohol. Now I want you to think in terms of 10 years. So whatever those problems are that you want to remove or whatever goals you want to get to, envision in 10 years what that would look like.

Are there missed opportunities? Like I said, about the doctor? Maybe there's even a more serious conversation. Maybe you're starting to see consequences in symptoms in your life. Maybe you're not progressing in any way with your fitness, and in fact, you're regressing, and you're missing out on opportunities to maybe participate in things with friends and activities, or maybe you can't run after your kids the same way.

Whatever it is, think through that if you didn't make the change, what that would look like. And now we're gonna go way into the future, and I want you to envision what it would look like in 20 years. Do the same exercise and just think, if I change nothing today or if maybe I just continue down this path and it progressively maybe even got worse, what would that impact my life and in what ways? And like I said, this is a little bit painful because you could look and say, maybe I've had damaged relationships. Maybe I'm treating my body wrong.

Maybe my mind isn't progressing, and I'm just stalled out at work because I'm just not taking these steps that I need to to get to where I want to. So now I want you to do the opposite of what we just did. I want you to envision that you are able to remove this block that you have right now, this thing that's motivating you to make these changes, and you fast forwarded to actually making those changes. So maybe you're starting to feel healthier. Maybe you're more productive.

Maybe you're starting to pick up hobbies that you never did before, and you're also not concentrated so much on your habits around alcohol, which frees up mind space for you to be able to create, to participate, and not be stuck in your mind so much. So think ahead. What would that look like in 5 years? What benefits would you see if you actually stuck on track with what your goal is now and what's motivating you to get started? And, again, do that for 10 years and then, again, for 20 years.

And you can see that over time that these habits that you're changing now are gonna have a cumulative effect that are gonna really impact your life for the long run. So really give it some thought. What benefits and what ways is my life gonna be positively impacted if I stick to my commitment now? And it doesn't have to be tomorrow. Right?

Like, this is a progression that we're going to, but give yourself a fast forward to be exactly where you wanna be and what that looks like. So after we've done these two comparisons, you can probably see the big difference on where your life could go if you chose to do nothing and stick to your commitment and where it could go if you're all about it. And every single day, if you make a plan, you're gonna stick to it because you know that it's gonna make a massive difference in your life. So after you've done this exercise that we're doing, these two pictures of the different paths, these are things that you can stick in your pocket. So if you're kind of on the fence on whether or not you're gonna stick to your commitment, you know, you can pull those 2 pictures out that you created in your head and remind yourself, this is why I'm doing this.

And so I hope this exercise was helpful. I urge you to do it. Like I said, I am not recommended anything that I haven't done before, and this one made a big impact on my life, and I hope it does for you. Again, if you're enjoying these, please leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you're listening to. And as always, send me an email, mike@sunnyside.co.

I'd love to hear from you. Thanks, and have a great week. This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the number one alcohol moderation platform, having helped hundreds of thousands of people cut out more than 13,000,000 drinks since 2020. And in fact, an independent study showed that Sunnyside reduced alcohol consumption by an average of 30% in 90 days. And as one of our members shared, Sunnyside helps me stay mindful of my drinking habits.

It's not super restrictive. So if I'm craving a glass of wine with dinner, I just track it and I move on with my week. If you could benefit from drinking a bit less and being more mindful of when and how much you drink, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free 15 day trial. You'll get access to everything that we offer, including tracking and planning tools, coaching from our experts, a vibrant community of people just like you, and the motivation and advice to stay on track with your health goals, all with no pressure to quit. That's sunnyside.co.