I was reading a post at Tom Venutos blog which was a question from a guy in Scotland that says that all of his friends drink, and everyone in Scotland drinks a lot of alcohol and how can he change and entire country so that he can live a healthier lifestyle. Of course everyone just says “change your friends” but as much as this seems like the easy answer it is not an easy thing to do. Tom says to change yourself and let those changes influence your actions. Here is a quote.
Once you accept a new lifestyle to the point that it becomes your identity, you can’t go back. You can’t say to yourself “I am a bodybuilder” and mean it, right down to the deepest subconscious level, and then go out drinking every weekend - it is simply not congruent, and your nervous system will short circuit behaviors that might sabotage you as a bodybuilder.
And the same works in reverse. If your identity is, “I am a drinker,” you cannot fight the automatic behaviors that are generated as a result, because it’s subconscious mind you are working against and thats a fight you always lose in the long term.
Conscious willpower lasts only so long against subconscious mind power. The only solution is change your entire identity to something different. Your associations help shape your identity, as your peer group becomes something you identify yourself with. join a group and you “become” one of them.
It is bodybuilding and the associations I made through bodybuilding that “saved me.” I had one foot on one side, and one on the other. I could have gone either way. I could be a heavy drinker today and I might not even be a fitness professional today except for some decisions I made many years ago about the type of person I would become and the type of people I would associate with.
It is true and the post itself goes into great detail how you can make changes and real friends will stand by you and that you really will just need to change your priorities on the weekend.
Making change is tough and no matter where you look in society there are always people that veer off and turn to a worse lifestyle while others right next to them will choose a better lifestyle from the norm.
The change is up to you.
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