You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart, episode 8.

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's your host, Rachel Hart.

Hey everybody, welcome back. I hope you all had a great weekend.

I'm actually got to spend my Sunday with one of my best girlfriends.

She's someone that has known me for a very long time.

We met shortly after graduating from college.

We were talking a lot about what motivates change.

In part because since we've known each other for so long, we've both seen each other through different jobs, different relationships, different points in our life.

For me, especially, she has watched me go through periods where I was drinking a lot and really struggling with my drinking and then trying to cut back and trying to take a break.

Of course, now she sees me what I'm doing today, how I am today.

We were talking about change and what really motivates change in our lives.

She said something that I thought was so interesting and I wanted to share with you.

She talked about how, for her, when she thinks about change or something that she wants to do differently, she always looks at it as an experiment.

She's trying something out. She's collecting data. She puts herself in the position of being the scientist.

I thought that that was such a great way to frame it, especially because so many of us, myself included for a very long time, looked at change and trying to change my behaviors and change my habits as an all or nothing enterprise.

It wasn't about collecting data. It was really about, I have to do this perfectly. I have to get this right. I can't make any mistakes.

I think that that framework is so helpful when thinking about a different way to embark on the process of change, a way to think about it as collecting data.

I wanted to share that with you today because today we're going to be talking all about urges and what to do when the urge to drink appears.

I think if you can take this framework and this idea of thinking of what you're trying out as an experiment as something where you're collecting data, rather than I have to do it right or I'm going to do it wrong or there is a perfect way to do it.

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