50+ Years of Drinking Stopped Overnight

I have a cool grandfather.

We call him “Papa”. He turned 80 recently.

You’ll find him watching NASCAR, cleaning his truck, or tinkering around in his garage with one of his snowmobiles.

His entire life he was a beer drinker.

He had a bit of a health scare a few years ago.

And so he gave up drinking entirely. Cold turkey.

He lost 30-40 pounds and feels better than he has in years.

And now he has hardly any desire to drink beer at all.

I was in awe of this habit revolution that happened with a guy in the 8th decade of his life.

A few months ago I was getting coffee with him in the early hours of the morning.

So I asked him –

“How did you quit? I know there was the health thing… but after all those years of drinking, how did you just stop drinking overnight?”

And his response was simple.

He shrugged, and with one of those smiles that was quickly turning into a smirk, said –

“I just don’t do that anymore”.

The Belief Flywheel of a New Habit

His little quote taught me a lesson in how to break a habit, even one that’s persisted for half a century.

Start thinking about yourself differently. This belief compounds into a flywheel.

He thought of himself as a different person.

He was now someone who didn’t drink beer.

And the new actions he was taking reinforced that belief.

He stopped drinking beer.

Which made the belief stronger.

He really started to believe he was the kind of person who didn’t drink beer.

Which made it easier to take those new actions.

He was now really someone who didn’t drink beer.

This belief became a flywheel that continued to reinforce itself.

There are so many applications with fitness.

• Do you want more energy?
• Do you want to be stronger?
• Do you want to be more disciplined? 
• Do you want to add more movement into your day?
• Do you want to change some snacking habits?

Think about what a healthy version of yourself would do.

Then do that thing.

And now that you did that thing, start thinking of yourself as someone who actually does that thing.

Which will make you want to do more of that thing.

Putting On and Putting Off

I can’t help but think of Colossians 3 here.

The Gospel is a comprehensively transformative belief (the understatement of the day).

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then also you will appear with Him in glory”

This belief changes an “earthly” life (v. 5) to a new life as “God’s chosen ones” (v. 12).

The earthly life is marked by sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, coveting, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk and lying (3:5-11).

The new life is marked by compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiveness, love, peace, thankfulness, wisdom, singing, and prayer (3:12-17).

Marriages are changed (3:18-19).

Parenting looks different (3:20-21).

Work is not the same anymore (3:22-25).

All of life is impacted and renewed by this belief.

It’s now all for Christ, and all by Christ.

Celebrate the Process, Not Just the Outcome

With fitness, one of the mistakes we make process in this process is being too hard on ourselves when we fail.

We can make 3 healthy decisions aligned with the healthy person we want to become, but then one mistake happens.

And suddenly we forget the 3 great decisions and we are consumed with the one bad one.

What we forgot to do was celebrate the process.

This happens when we get too narrowly focused on the outcome.

Give yourself some grace and patience.

God is gracious and patient with you. He is a merciful Father who loves His children.

To close with a story, here’s C.S. Lewis celebrating the slow, transformative process of becoming something new.

In Lewis’ book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace Scrubb is an intolerable character.

However, Eustace’s mistakes turn him into a literal monster (a dragon), and Aslan has to deliver him.

Here’s how Eustace is described after he has his transformative experience.

“It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say that ‘from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.’

To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of these I shall not notice.

The cure had begun”

➡️ The Takeaway

Want to start a new habit?

Start thinking of yourself as the kind of person that does the thing you want to do.

Then do the thing.

Then you’ll really start believing you’re the kind of person who does that thing.

So you’ll do more of the thing.

Celebrate the process. This is an expression of God’s grace in your life.

If you liked this, check out the Layman’s Fitness Newsletter, where I release similar content like this every week.