Make Your Dreams Come True!

Good morning. I'm gonna try to tame my small child so we can get through this really exciting live stream. All right. It says, I'm officially live. Good morning. Good Friday morning. I am so fired up today. I hope you can feel it. I hope I'm radiating excitement. And as soon as I see at least one person tune in, which I hope I do, because this is a really exciting day for me. I should have probably put it in the community feed, but that's okay. Everybody knows where I am. Good morning. Speak, wonder.

Okay, we're live. Okay, you guys, today is such an exciting day. What's up, Luke? You guys, it's the 29 December. Hey, Chris. Thank you guys for tuning in. It's the 29 December, 2023. One year ago. One year ago, four score. And one year ago, I decided to cold turkey quit alcohol. And I want to take you guys through a little bit of what this last year has been like for me and just kind of share some of my takeaways from it, because I remember where I was at exactly, sitting on this couch. Shame spiraling last year, because I hit kind of like a rock bottom incident.

I got pulled over. I was not belligerent, but I had a few drinks at dinner. And I live in Arizona. Scottsdale police take it very seriously. There were four cops surrounding me, and I was like, I'm too nice to go to jail. It was really scary, and I can laugh about it now, but at the time, I thought my life was over. I thought my businesses would be taken from me. I didn't think I was gonna make it home to my dog that night. Now I have two. I cannot imagine if I had a puppy in his crate waiting for me to come home.

It was bad enough to know that while he was here, like, wondering where mom was, I was gone for way too long as it was. But just the anxiety and the shame spiraling that I felt when that happened kicked me into gear, and I will never forget it. And so, on this day last year, I was like, I'm done with alcohol. I'm taking a year off, and I'm going to see what happens, and I'm going to see how I feel, and I'm going to see what this experience holds for me. So, thank you for being proud of me. So, I'm going to take you through about eight lessons or so that I learned.

I'm going to rip through them really fast because I know everyone's time is super valuable, and hopefully this is a impactful for you. And then if you want to share anything in the comments. If you've experienced this yourself, if you are sober living right now, I'm sure there is a couple people on this live stream that can relate to what I'm going through. And you don't have to have a certain letter on your back or not. It doesn't matter what you are going through in your life. You can decide to quit anything if it's.

If it's the best thing for you and you don't have to hit a rock bottom. You can make that choice at any point in time. But I definitely, for somebody who didn't drink a lot as it was, had a huge wake up call. And it was the best wake up call that could have ever happened for me, I think. Luke, you said to me something about having nine lives, and I just used basically all of them in that one moment and it was time to make a change. So. Okay, let's take you through some of my lessons. Hi, Jill. Oh, my gosh.

Wow. I feel really special. Jill's on here today, you guys. Never happens. Welcome, Jill. Okay. Taking you through what I've learned in the last year with no alcohol. Number one, I can do anything for a day, a week, a month, and in this case, a year. I think so often we tell ourselves, like, I could never do that. Or we see somebody else accomplishing a goal or doing something, and we mentally just have already told ourselves that we can't do it. And I'm not sure if you've read the books, the seven habits, the seven healthy habits of.

The seven habits of highly successful people. The seven healthy habits of highly successful people. I think that's what it's called. And they talk about habit building, and there's so many professional books out there and business books that talk about building a habit, and they make it sound really easy. But it is okay for so many people that think that this is just out of their reach. It's not. I did it without even thinking about it, and it worked like that. And I know that it's not that easy for so many people.

And different things that you want to give up have different layers of difficulty or levels of difficulty, but your mind is so much more powerful than you think. So my suggestion is to just try it. Start small and bite off more and more and more as time goes on. And we're all here cheering you on. Number two, I was right. Alcohol wasn't serving me for the last year before I decided to give it up. I just kept saying to myself, I think it's time for me to give up alcohol, I think it's time. I think it's time.

And then every time, I would have a drink or two and wake up hungover and my day would be wasted, I would shame spiral, and I would feel so much anxiety, and I would keep telling myself, I don't think alcohol is serving me. I think I need to give it up. And I didn't listen to myself, and I didn't listen to my gut. And I always say that your gut is your most powerful tool. It's your best friend. It will take you through anything. And I didn't listen to it for so long. And then look what happened.

And I got lucky. I got really lucky. I didn't go to jail, but I could have. And I could have lost a lot in that moment. So I think, you know, hindsight is always 2020, but also, things happen for a reason, and there's a reason why I didn't give it up earlier. I wasn't, like, quite, quite ready, I don't think. But as soon as I was, it was on number three. It's more common than I thought. And the more I started talking about it, the more people opened up to me and started sharing their stories with me or saying to me they wanted to be sober, or they were sober curious, or they were entertaining this idea of giving it up.

So I think sometimes we think that we live on this island by ourselves when we are focused on one thing, but really, it's about finding your community Cadre, and it's about finding people who are going to support you and build you up and champion you through that journey and that process. And the more openly we speak about something, the more authentic our story becomes. And our story, it resonates with people. And the more authentically we live, and then people start coming out of the woodwork, and your community just sort of starts building around you.

Number four, clarity is king. And it's worth its weight in gold. I have had so much clarity this year. Clarity in who I am, clarity in what I want for my business. Clarity in what I'm saying. Although my memory still is terrible, I don't drink to, you know, forget. Or there's, like, a book that's called, I haven't had enough coffee yet, you guys. But I am excited. But there's, like, remembering the things I was drinking to forget or something. I think that's the name of the book. I had that thought process throughout this whole year.

Like, when I would drink, I wouldn't always remember, even if it was just a couple of drinks, what I did, what I said, what I texted, what I maybe emailed late at night or, you know, I didn't really have a pause button. So the clarity that I felt over this last year was just mind blowing, and it was freeing, and it made me really self aware, and it made me really confident about what came out of my mouth and what I put out there into the world. And I knew that I was of sound mind while I was doing it, and there's nothing more satisfying than that.

Number five, I believe, based on the feedback that I got from people, that I was inspiring bravery in people. And what I mean by that is that the more I shared, the more people came forward. And number one told me that my story and my journey was inspiring, but also they felt the courage and the freedom to say to me, there are some changes that I want to make in my life, or I want to lose the weight, or I want to give up alcohol, or I want to leave my husband or my boyfriend, or, like, all of this, like, inspirational storytelling kind of came out, and people started sharing with me.

And I think my journey and my ability to cut the noise and not care what other people think in society about being, like, living a sober life or just living an alcohol free life and making healthier choices, it came out of the woodwork, and it is my goal and my mission in life to inspire and help people like all of you here on this platform and all of the creators and the people involved in the Cadre platform. That's our mission. And so talk about living your mission in its total truth. I felt it down to my bones.

And when people told me that I was inspiring them, I got butterflies and got so excited, because I know that's what I was put on this planet to do. So it just made me live up to the potential that I know that I have to inspire people. Okay, number six, if you want to have great successes, you need to make great sacrifices. And I think oftentimes this is lost on people. They say they want something. They say they want to go to the next level. They say they want to be a better leader. They say they want to live a more clean and healthy life, but their actions don't align with their words.

And you need to make sacrifices if you want to succeed in certain areas of your life. And to me, I mean this. I was lucky enough that I didn't feel addicted. But in a lot of cases, addiction is real, and it isn't that easy to give it up. So it's a sacrifice for you to make that change in your life. And the sacrifice may be really, really great, and you may lose so much along the way. But I'm a firm believer that when you lose all of those things, you are shedding the dead skin and the dead weight, and you are going to come out on the other side better, stronger, more fulfilled and surrounded by the right people.

So when you make those great sacrifices, you do have those great successes. And I will say that personally and professionally, I had a monumental year in terms of the growth that I experienced. I'm not a millionaire yet, but I know I paved the way this year to be able to clear the road for 2024 to be a more fruitful year. I laid the groundwork this year by making the sacrifices. Okay, number seven, we don't live in a judgment free world, but we can create our own world where judgment doesn't exist.

Now, I didn't really lose friends, per se, but I made a conscious effort to only see the ones that support me and that I know aren't going to judge me. So I was able to create that world because I didn't feel forced into social situations where I was having to drink or pretend to be somebody that I wasn't because I created my own judgment free zone. And I think cutting alcohol allowed me to, like I said before, have a lot of clarity. Or clarity is king. But I also realized that I can create the world that I want to live in.

And I don't think that I fully realized this while I was consuming alcohol, because I was putting myself in situations that weren't really authentic to me, having conversations with people I didn't care about, pretending to be somebody that I wasn't, maybe trying to bring the room up a level when really I just wanted to introvert that day, whatever it may be. I was able to create my own judgment free zone and cut the noise and stay right in that little bubble and that space without anybody ruining the experience that I was trying to have with myself.

And then number eight kind of goes along with this one. Come here, dumps. But I spent the last year figuring out exactly who I was with. Nothing to hide behind when you cut substances from your life. From what I've learned, I don't do any other substances. I haven't really ever, other than alcohol. Okay, yeah, we all experimented back in our day, whatever it may be. I have lived a substance free, completely substance free life for the last year. And it allowed me to see exactly who I am. Start to showcase that a little bit more.

If you follow me on social media, you'll see that without any embarrassment, without any, like, care, zero negative in the world. And it feel. It felt really good. And people started to take notice of that and say to me, wow, you're glowing. Like, you know, and, yeah, I mean, I'm taking care of my skin because I'm not drinking. And I had a bout where my skin was terrible, and I was like, no, I'm cutting the alcohol. I'm doing all the things, but I got to the bottom of that. But, like, the messaging from people was like, you know, you're glowing, and you look so happy, and you look really fulfilled.

And they were right, because. Because I was, and I am. And there's nothing more freeing than that. I definitely notice, you know, side effects. Like, I'm sleeping better, and I'm making overall healthier choices because of this decision to live a healthier, happier, more freeing life. Anyway, so I'm gonna go back through some of these comments. Oh, my gosh. Jill wasn't gonna miss this. Live. Never enough coffee. Yes. Live authentically. You handed me a gem of a mantra. Yes, I am, like, living in my authentic life right now, and it is.

It's blowing my own mind, and it feels really, really good. Cut the fat out of your life. Inspiring people by you is bold, beautiful, and beautiful. Thank you. Luke, you look amazing, and your eyes are filled with confidence and clarity. Thank you. Speak, wonder. Yes. You guys. Oh. One year ago, I decided it was time to take off the extra weight. I've lost 70 pounds. Boo. Yeah. That is so awesome. Good for you. And you did it because you knew, probably. My assumption is you knew that on the other side of that was you and your happiest version of you.

And I think that when we can make these decisions for us at the time, that feels really good to us, not based on what societal norms are or what our friend group is doing or what our family expects of us. You know, I think, like, it's. It's. It's freeing. It's. It's living up to the potential that you absolutely have as a human being, so. Hi, Katie. So, yeah, that is. That's. That's a huge feat right there. So, anyway, I just. I don't want to take up too much of you guys time, but I hope that this inspires you as we're going into the new year and thinking about who we want to be, because time, you guys, it's a thief.

It gets stolen from us every minute that it gets, and I hope that you go into this new year, not making resolutions. I don't know. I'm not a resolution kind of galaxy, but I hope that you go into this year thinking, like, what? Who is this person that I deserve to be? And what steps do I need to take? Not what. Not just saying it, but living it. Okay. So many people are not living it. They're not taking action, and they're just saying, oh, yeah, I want to do this. And it was me for a long time. I want to cut alcohol.

I want to cut alcohol. It's not serving me. And I kept saying it. And you know what? I was saying it to a friend of mine who's sober, and he was just like, shut up. Either do it or don't. I don't know why I felt the need to say it to him. Probably because he was one of the closest friends in my life at the time, but. And maybe I just. I don't know. I was inspired by what he was doing, and I just wanted to keep saying it so I was accountable. But he's actually doing it, and I was really inspired by that.

And I think that you have it inside of you. If there's a change that you want to make, if you need to have a tough conversation with somebody in your life, don't wait. What are you waiting for? Why are you waiting? Ask yourself why. If you need to lose the weight or want to lose the weight. Not need. If you want to make a change, you guys, it's right there for the taking. And I can't wait to see just, like, what's ahead for this year. Sorry, squeaky toy tried to take all the squeakers away. You guys.

Puppy life, that puppy life. Anyway. Pain free joints. Wow. Yes. Pain free joints. Curious. That's. You should coin that, by the way. We love you too. Speak, wonder. I love seeing you on here. Thank you guys all for joining. Okay, Dempsey. Sorry, guys. You get, like, serenaded by the puppy. Thank you for being here. Thank you for giving me a safe place to share and to get excited and to just experiment with life. And I wish you all the best new year. I can't even wait to just see all the progress everybody on here makes and just to keep sharing with you guys.

And there's gonna be some major dreams coming true in 2024. I can just feel it. I can feel it in my bones. And I just love you all, and I'm so grateful for this Cadre platform, and thank you. Just thank you. So cheers to you with my coffee. Cheers. Whatever it may be that you are partaking in cappuccino matcha iced tea? Decaf if you're Luke. You guys, I love you so much. Cheers to 2024. And thank you for allowing me to speak with you every Friday and share this space love.