OoM 066： Overcoming Alcohol Addiction with James Swanwick
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
209.6574
Summary
In this episode, James Swanick talks with us about breaking habits, changing your environment, choosing the people you surround yourself with, and how to kick alcohol for good. James is a New York-based ESPN anchor on SportsCenter, the author of Insider Journalism Secrets, and co-founder of an international agency, Croc Media. He s been a print or TV journalist for over 20 years, writing for newspapers and magazines in the U.S., the UK, and Australia. He now teaches aspiring journalists and graduates how to get a job in the fast-paced journalism industry through his course, How to Become a Journalist.
Transcript
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Strength, energy, drive, motivation, relationships, health, these are all things we as men want in more and deeper quantities.
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It's difficult enough to improve in each of these areas, but adding alcohol addiction to the equation certainly doesn't help.
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My guest today, James Swanick, talks with us about breaking habits, changing your environment, choosing the people you surround yourself with, and how to kick alcohol for good.
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path.
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When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.
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This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become.
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At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Men, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler, and I am your host and founder of Order of Man.
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I'm glad you're back with us here today, and if you're new to the show, of course, welcome as well.
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I hope that all of you fathers listening to this show had a great weekend.
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You are more valuable than you know, and my hope is that we can help you become better fathers, and frankly, better men, here on this show.
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Now, if you don't already know, this show is about all things manly, from health and building wealth to relationships and being a better protector and a leader.
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In other words, this is the place that you go to learn about all things manly and become the man you were meant to be.
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This show is a great one, especially for those of you who are looking to kick your alcohol habit, or really any habit.
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But before I get into that show, I do want to let you know that you can get all the links, the resources, the quotes, and everything else you need for this show at orderofman.com slash 066.
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And also, be sure you join our closed men's Facebook group for a deeper conversation we're having about this and so much more over at facebook.com slash groups slash orderofman.
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Now, with all that said, let me introduce you to our guest today, James Swanick.
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James is a New York-based ESPN anchor on SportsCenter, the author of Insider Journalism Secrets, and co-founder of an international agency, Croc Media.
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He's been a print or TV journalist for over 20 years, writing for newspapers and magazines in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, including Associated Press, Sky Sports, ESPN, Sydney Daily Telegraph, The Sun, Sky Movie Channel, Loaded Magazine, and many more.
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He now teaches aspiring journalists and graduates how to get a job in the fast-paced journalism industry through his course, How to Become a Journalist.
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But today, he's here to talk about a specific challenge he's learned to overcome in his own life, the ability to quit drinking alcohol, and how you can join him on that journey.
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James, what's going on, man? Thanks for being on the show today.
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This is going to be a good conversation because I know that this is on a lot of men's minds, not necessarily something I've dealt with personally, fortunately, but I know alcohol and maybe even addiction is something that we definitely need to address as men.
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So tell me a little bit about your backstory and how you got to where you are today, if you can, really quickly.
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Sure. Well, I'm Australian-American. I've been living in this beautiful country of America since about 2000 and – when was it? 2002, I think, yeah.
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I grew up in Brisbane, Australia, came over to the States, interviewed movie stars like Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie when I was a celebrity journalist.
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Owned a PR company in 2008, but then lost it in the financial crisis.
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So I've had some success in business and then had some disasters happen to me as well.
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I hosted SportsCenter on ESPN for a couple of years, which realized a lifelong dream to host a TV show, which was really cool.
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I wasn't an alcoholic, certainly, but I drank a few times during the week.
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And then on weekends, I'd turn it on a little bit more and drink heavily and binge drink and, you know, it just added up a little bit.
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I put on about 25 pounds without really even noticing and I was tired and lethargic all the time.
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I'm just going to take a 30-day break from alcohol and see how I feel.
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And when I did that, I lost 13 pounds in 30 days and then my relationships got better.
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All of a sudden, I made more money and now I'm the creator of the 30-day no alcohol challenge, which teaches people how to quit for 30 days and, you know, kickstart their life with more clarity and focus.
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No, that makes a ton of sense and I think it's so valuable.
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I don't necessarily think that having a drink now and again is a bad thing, just like you said.
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But I do think that we sometimes have a tendency not only to let alcohol but other addictions, whether it's pornography or drug use, to consume our lives and keep us from accomplishing all that we were meant to accomplish.
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So how did some of the things that you learned through this 30-day challenge apply to other areas of your life?
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Because you said your relationships leveled up.
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You said you started to make more money and that is – is that a direct correlation of the challenge or something else?
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What happened was is that I quit alcohol for 30 days and then I kept going.
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But what happened after those 30 days, after I'd lost the weight, I started focusing on health a lot more and because I was healthier, I was happier.
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And because I was happier, I was attracting happier people into my life.
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And because all of a sudden, I became more health conscious, I was attracting more health conscious people into my life.
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It wasn't that I was hanging out with a low caliber of person when I was drinking.
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It's just that when I quit drinking, I started hanging out with a higher caliber of person.
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You know, all of a sudden, romantic relationships became like 10 times better.
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I was with more evolved women, women who are into yoga and fitness and health and spirituality and fun.
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And because I was healthier and I'd lost weight, I had more energy and clarity and focus because I was sleeping better.
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And because I was sleeping better and had more clarity, I was able to focus on, right, what am I going to kick ass in in my business?
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And then from there, you know, I created a podcast in iTunes called The James Swanick Show, which has been going now for two years.
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I created an Amazon business where I sell physical products.
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Everything was a byproduct of quitting the alcohol and getting that clarity and focus.
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And I always talk about the way we do one thing is the way we do everything.
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I went on a fitness journey about three years ago.
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And as I started to get back into shape, everything that I started doing translated perfectly, just like you said, into the relationships I had, into my business.
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And since then, I've started Order Man Podcast.
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And the thing that I like what you said is you talk about eliminating certain things from your life.
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I think a lot of us tend to think, OK, we are the average of the five people we spend the time with.
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And we think we've got to incorporate meditation and yoga and new friends into our life.
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And we forget about eliminating some of those other things.
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So did you just stop cold turkey on that 30-day challenge or did you ease into this?
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I had a couple of gin and tonics the night before.
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But I woke up the next morning with this terrible hangover.
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And I think I was dehydrated from the flight from LA to Austin the day before.
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And the two drinks kind of just really gave me a bad hangover.
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And I was sitting in this IHOP, this International House of Pancakes, for a hangover breakfast.
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And I was looking around and I saw these really big fat people eating all-you-can-eat pancakes with maple syrup.
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I just planned on going for 30 days just to test, to see what happened.
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And because I got to day 30 and I felt amazing, I just said, oh, I wonder if I can do 40 days.
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So then I got to 40 days and I felt even better.
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And I went, hmm, I wonder if I can get to three months.
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And that's when I realized, like, wow, my relationships are better.
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I'm now going on Saturday and Sunday morning hikes.
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Like, whereas before I'd be going out and spending money on alcohol or even if I wasn't getting drunk, even if I was just going to have a couple of drinks with a friend on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, you can still rack up 40, 50 bucks easy.
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You know, you buy a couple rounds, order a food or a pizza or something.
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Maybe you're getting a taxi home because, you know, that money really adds up.
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And then at 90 days, I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to see how long I can go.
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I was back in Austin, back at the next South by Southwest Festival.
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And I went into the Luster Pearl Bar, which was in Austin.
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And I went and ordered a Budweiser to go and celebrate one year without drinking.
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And I was like, hmm, you know what, I'm just going to keep going.
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So I gave the beer back to the barman, said, give me a water with ice and a piece of lime.
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With my 30-day no alcohol challenge, I tell people, listen, you don't have to quit forever.
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Just quit for 30 days and get a glimpse of what it's like without alcohol.
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And then on day 31, go back to drinking if you want, but just do it at a far reduced level.
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And certainly all the people who've done my 30-day no alcohol challenge,
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what happens is most of them go back to drinking, but they do it at a far reduced level.
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Because it seems like it would be easy to let alcohol control you.
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And it sounds like after this challenge, it's easier to control your drinking.
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It's ingrained into our society and into our mentality from an early age.
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Hey, your 21st birthday party, let's get drunk.
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Hey, I'm going out for a romantic dinner with a pretty girl.
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Let's go to the pub or the bar and drink beer all afternoon.
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Well, who says you have to do any of those activities with alcohol?
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For the last six years, I've been doing all those activities while drinking soda water
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And I've been having a far better time, a far more enjoyable time than when I was drinking.
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So it's really just understanding habits, Ryan.
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It's just understanding the habit of a nightly drink or two or the habit of socializing with
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alcohol, realizing that it's actually costing you a lot of money.
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Let's talk about habits because, yes, we're talking about it in the context of alcohol,
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How do we develop these habits and be a little bit more deliberate about what it is we're doing
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and how we're spending our time on a daily basis?
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Yeah, well, there's a great book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, New York.
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And I review that book within the 30-day no alcohol challenge.
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The way we brush our teeth, the way we use the bathroom in the morning, what side of the
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bed we sleep on, what we do in the first 10 minutes of the day.
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How we approach a pretty girl if we're wanting to approach a girl, what we order, what food
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So if you identify, finally, which habit isn't serving you, and in this example, it's drinking
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If you can identify that first and foremost, you're halfway there because a lot of people
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don't realize, well, just a drink or two at nighttime is nothing much, right?
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So what I teach people in terms of the habits of drinking is instead of keeping alcohol within
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eyesight in your kitchen, a lot of people have got like a bar or leave wine on the kitchen
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bench, develop the habit of just removing the wine or the alcohol from your site.
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And that can simply mean putting the bottle of wine that you keep on the kitchen bench in
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your garage or putting it in a drawer away that you cannot see it.
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Or if you keep beer in the fridge, keep the beer at the back of the fridge and put all
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Or put the wine on the top shelf of your fridge at the very back.
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So when you're looking in the fridge, you don't see it.
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For example, I had a coffee addiction for a little while and I'll tell you how I finally
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All I did was remove the damn coffee maker from my kitchen.
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Every time I'd wake up in the morning, I'd go into the kitchen, I'd see the coffee maker.
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The moment I put it away and put it in a drawer and I didn't see it in the morning was the
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day that I actually broke the habit of drinking.
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So little habits like that, Ryan, just removing it out of eyesight, you start to break the cycle.
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Whenever I walked into a bar now, and this is what I teach people in my 30-day no alcohol
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challenge program, is whenever you walk into a bar or a restaurant, the first thing you
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should do is create the habit of walking straight up to the barman and say, hi, may I please
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have a glass of water with ice and a piece of lime, please?
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The minute you walk into a bar, just go straight to the bar and order water, ice, and a piece
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That way, you're just creating this habit of drinking water and not having to buy alcohol.
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When people do that, they enjoy themselves, they're clear-headed, and they're not spending
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money, and they tend to have more fun than people who are drinking.
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I just had an interview with Joe DeSena, the founder of Spartan Races, and we actually
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He said, it's just a matter of, we hear a lot about discipline, but when in all reality,
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what it is, is just making it easier to do the right things and making it harder to do
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the things that you're trying to eliminate from your life.
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So I'm totally on board with what you're saying.
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And in that book, too, The Power of Habit, he talks about a trigger, right?
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So identifying what it is that's triggering this response for you.
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So it could be a wedding or a party or a game, whatever it may be.
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And then the cue, right, I think is the cue, which is what you actually are doing, in this
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So did you change your reward when you went from alcohol to now I'm drinking water?
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So how do you reward yourself instead of getting the buzz maybe that the alcohol was providing?
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The reward for me is having great, deep relationships with people.
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The reward for me is just living a really health-conscious, fun, energetic life.
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So it's not – I don't go into a bar going, oh, I must have alcohol.
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I go into a bar now going, I must drink soda water or water.
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And so every time I'm drinking an ice-cold glass of water at a bar or a restaurant, I'm
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Because too many of us associate drinking alcohol with a good time and with the reward.
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And so all I did was just flip it and say, the reward is healthy living.
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This healthy living is making me happier and feel amazing.
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Instead of associating drinking alcohol with fun and pleasure, I now just associate eating
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well, drinking well, exercising well with pleasure.
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And sometimes the reward is just watching people get drunk because that can be pretty entertaining
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I know I haven't had alcohol for, I want to say, 15, 14, 15 years now.
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So it just seems so foreign at this point to even think back about what life was all about
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when I was partying and in college, out with a buddy.
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So this is a good conversation for me to have, for sure.
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So how did you go cold turkey, Ryan, or how did you stop?
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I went cold turkey and I attribute it to my wife, who I had met, and we started dating.
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And it was just the kind of person I wanted to be.
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And I want to be very cautious because I don't think drinking alcohol makes somebody a bad
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It's just that I wanted a lot of the clarity and the purpose and vision and the drive and
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And I thought alcohol did not fit into that plan for me.
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Yeah, it's funny, you know, be the type of person you want to attract as well.
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It's funny, when you're drinking alcohol, getting drunk, you tend to be hanging out
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with people who drink a lot of alcohol and get drunk and have hangovers.
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And listen, if that's okay, if that's all right by you and it's not affecting your health,
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But if you want to have more energy, you want to sleep better, you want to look as nature
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Because alcohol is a depressant, and you want to save a lot more money, and you want to kick
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ass, then I would seriously just consider reducing or quitting alcohol.
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And you'll find that your relationships just improve out of sight.
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But since I quit drinking, the romantic relationships I've had have just improved dramatically.
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Just a really wonderful caliber of woman has come into my life.
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And then the type of people that I hang out with now, it's not trivial conversations.
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They're conversations that I have about self-development and about growing a business and
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about relationships and really cool, interesting things.
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And it sounds like your now wife, Ryan, really helped you, you know, push you along and helped
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And we talk all about masculinity and manliness and how to be a man.
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But at the end of the day, if I didn't have a good woman, and I think a lot of guys can
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attribute their success as a man to this as well as having a good woman on your side really
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goes a long way in making sure you live to your full potential as well.
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People are always like, oh, I've got to go out and drink in order to be confident and
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When women realize that I didn't drink or I quit drinking, I could just see it in their
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eyes that they were so much more attracted to me or that was an attractive quality.
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And then they would tell me afterwards, it's like, wow, I was really impressed that you
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I can go out, have a good time, not drink, not spend money.
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Why did they find that attractive in your mind?
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Self-discipline, it just shows like, it also shows confidence.
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I'm so confident that I can go out in a social setting and be the life of the party and engage
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people and introduce people and be introduced and have good conversation.
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And then just the self-discipline, you know, the willpower.
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And for me, it wasn't even willpower because I just got so used to it.
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But, you know, a man who's in control, a man who knows what he wants, a man who knows what
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he doesn't want, a man who doesn't have to adhere to societal pressure to drink, women
00:20:03.260
Man, I just want to take a quick time out to tell you about our inaugural Order of Man
00:20:11.260
It's in the mountains of southern Utah, and it's designed to help you show up more fully
00:20:14.780
in your business and your community, your family, and frankly, your life.
00:20:19.140
So we're going to be doing a lot of work to help you become the man that you were meant
00:20:22.240
We're going to help you identify what it is you want out of life in the area of your
00:20:25.500
relationships and your health and wealth and within yourself.
00:20:27.880
And we're also going to be helping you lay the foundation and crafting your own roadmap
00:20:33.860
So all you have to do is get to Las Vegas by Thursday, September 15th, and our team will
00:20:39.220
Transportation, lodging, food, instruction, events and activities, swag, everything, everything
00:20:44.780
We'll be doing this over the weekend, and everything is designed to help you develop physical strength,
00:20:48.620
mental fortitude, emotional clarity, and ultimately help you make more money, connect with the
00:20:53.800
people in your life on a deeper level, take charge of your health, and live the life
00:20:57.940
So get the details for that at orderofman.com slash uprising.
00:21:07.580
Now let's get back to my interview with James Swanick.
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What were some of the challenges that you faced?
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Because I know this probably wasn't all easy, and I can imagine social triggers and cues
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But were there some other challenges in addition to that that made it difficult for you to stick
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Well, some people in the first few weeks, some friends of mine were like, go on, just
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And to be honest with you, it was a little bit hard.
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But I said to them, listen, this is what I want to do.
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One of my friends was completely idiotic, and he tried to slip vodka in my drink.
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So he goes off to the bar, comes back, and says, here's your drink.
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And I went to put it up to my mouth, and right at the last minute, I kind of suspected.
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And so, you know, so you have friends who don't really get it, or they don't want, or
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they don't, you know, they want to kind of trick you.
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No one, everyone else is kind of like just admires me for it, really.
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Another challenge is when you're stressed out, like you have a long day at work, and you
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associate having a drink with being able to calm you down or calm your nerves to de-stress
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you, but what I realized is that I didn't actually want alcohol to relieve my stress.
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Right, and you thought that was the medium of doing it.
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And so what I did was instead of drinking alcohol, I would go for a run, or I'd go for
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a walk, or I'd drink a really tall glass of ice-cold water, or I would do a little five
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or ten minutes of meditation, or I would just do anything else to relieve my stress that
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But too many of us, it's so easy to just go, oh, I just need a drink to relieve my stress.
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You just need to relieve your stress some other way.
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To relieve your stress, what you're actually doing when you drink is reaching for poison.
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And the National Institute of Health has shown that the toxins from alcohol stay in your
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body for seven to ten days after you have that drink.
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So even if you have a drink and then you don't drink for a week, chances are there are still
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That's a long time to have poison and toxins circulating in your body.
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So anything other than drinking, a run, a meditation, reading a book, calling a friend,
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going and doing something, some other activity will relieve your stress.
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So I want to go back to something that you said, which was that your buddies gave you a
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hard time and that was a little tricky at first, which I think this is really important to hit
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on because not only does this apply to you trying to overcome drinking alcohol, but starting
00:24:15.960
a new business, getting in shape, finding a woman, settling down with a woman.
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All of these things in life that we as men deal with, we're going to have some resistance
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And I want to know and get your thoughts on how to shield yourself against that resistance
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when you know what it is you're doing is the right thing to do, but maybe guys aren't
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What are some tips that you have for dealing with that sort of thing?
00:24:41.060
So is your question like, how do you deal with your friends or people who are like challenging
00:24:44.940
you to not drink or challenging you on what it is?
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So one way of handling that is just get a new group of friends.
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You know, like I'm not saying that people you've got to cut friends, but I'm saying
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move towards a group of peers who support you in your endeavors.
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So while my friends who do drink and who've kept drinking, they're still friends of mine.
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Like I was just at the Elton John party the other night after the Oscars and I ran into
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a friend of mine who used to be my next door neighbor and we used to go out drinking all
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the time and there he was again drinking excessively and kind of getting drunk and this is 10 years
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We'll always be friendly, but I don't spend that much time with him now.
00:25:32.080
I've now gone into another group of friends who, and most of my friends don't drink or
00:25:38.640
Most of my friends are now moving in the same direction as I am, which is wanting a relationship
00:25:45.320
Most of my friends are very health conscious now, uh, who, and the conversation when we
00:25:50.720
go out to dinner and we sit down, like, um, for example, I went out on Melrose Avenue a
00:25:55.220
few weeks ago and I were like 10 or 11 guys, guy friends, just a guy's dinner on a Sunday
00:26:03.400
And the people who were sitting there was, uh, my friend, Greg, Greg O'Gallagher, who runs
00:26:09.760
I had Ben Avanzato, who's a big Hollywood personal trainer.
00:26:12.320
Um, I had a guy who's, um, an assistant for Dan, um, is it Dan Balzerian?
00:26:19.520
Um, and, uh, nobody ordered alcohol and all the conversation was around workouts and health
00:26:27.740
And I was talking about how I wanted to, you know, I was moving in the direction of getting
00:26:31.540
married and having kids and other guys were talking about their relationships.
00:26:37.040
We can suggest like, Hey, you should read this book.
00:26:39.760
Hey, James, you should interview this person on your podcast.
00:26:42.100
Because that person will be able to, to teach your listeners about relationships and being
00:26:49.000
So to answer your question, um, start to move in those circles.
00:26:54.980
You don't have to cut friends, but you can also cut friends as well.
00:26:58.720
It's kind of like spring training in baseball, right?
00:27:00.740
Like when spring training rolls around, you cut out the dead wood, you cut out people who
00:27:05.040
are no longer serving you and you bring in fresh blood.
00:27:07.900
Um, another way of handling it is just tell your friends, listen, this is what I'm doing.
00:27:12.020
This is what, this is the direction I'm, I'm moving in.
00:27:14.460
It would really, I'd really appreciate your, your support.
00:27:17.180
And if they still don't support you, it's pretty easy to cut them, right?
00:27:23.480
I mean, one of the things that we talk about, we have a, a mastermind group that we actually
00:27:29.680
And we actually assign what we call battle brothers.
00:27:31.700
And a battle brother is somebody who has your back, who's going to be able to help you accomplish
00:27:35.760
your goals and stick to what it is you say you're going to do.
00:27:37.940
So I think finding a battle brother or an accountability partner, or just a close friend
00:27:41.900
in real life is so, so valuable to help you stick to these type of things.
00:27:47.460
And the other thing I want to say is that, you know, when you say find a new group of
00:27:50.780
friends, that's sometimes that's easier said than done.
00:27:53.120
So how do you recommend going about being deliberate about who it is you're spending time with?
00:27:57.840
Well, I'll tell you what I, I'll tell you what I did just last week.
00:28:00.320
Um, I recently read a book called the power of now by Eckhart Tolle, and I loved that book.
00:28:07.280
It's a New York times bestseller, a very famous book, and it's all about being present in the
00:28:11.560
It's stopped focusing or obsessing over the past and obsessing over the future.
00:28:17.480
And I live in Los Angeles and I, and I went to meetup.com meetup.com and I typed in power
00:28:28.680
I'm going to start a meetup group and I'm going to bring other people who like that
00:28:33.620
And so I started a meetup group called power of now Eckhart Tolle, uh, group.
00:28:40.520
We have meetings and we talk about, you know, the power of now and how, how we can incorporate
00:28:46.140
I had my very first meetup last Thursday night at a, at a coffee bean on sunset boulevard.
00:28:51.840
Three people turned up, just three, three people.
00:28:57.040
For 90 minutes, we talked about the power of now, how we can deal with stress in our life.
00:29:04.560
I've made three new friends simply by having a meetup and bringing it to me.
00:29:11.620
They're into finding ways to live in the now rather than obsessing over the past and in
00:29:16.860
So people say, you know, instead of having to go out there and find that group, bring
00:29:25.600
Another way of doing it is if you're into yoga and fitness and health, go and join a
00:29:33.240
If you are into an entrepreneur, you want to be an entrepreneur, go into an entrepreneurial
00:29:38.760
If you want to invest in real estate, there's real estate association meetups in every single
00:29:44.140
Whatever the group is that you want to get involved with, just do a Google search and
00:29:49.080
either go in and tap into that group or just create your own on meetup.com and bring the
00:29:55.040
type of person you want to associate with to you.
00:29:59.440
And I love you talk about just being assertive.
00:30:01.740
I think too many of us live life by what I refer to as default, which is we hang out with
00:30:10.060
We hang out with the guys that are in our neighborhood.
00:30:11.720
And we don't really spend any amount of time thinking about, is this somebody that I should
00:30:18.420
And what you said too, that really struck me is that you actually took the initiative
00:30:25.440
And I think sometimes if you're trying to make changes in your life, you're going to
00:30:31.620
You're going to look around and nobody from just that first view is going to be changing.
00:30:36.660
You're going to have to be the one to initiate it, to get it going, and then you'll start
00:30:40.740
to build and grow and do the things from there.
00:30:42.840
So well done on putting yourself out there anyway.
00:30:46.640
I mean, you can sit at home on a Friday night and the phone does not ring and people do not
00:30:50.880
invite you somewhere and you can go, oh, my life sucks.
00:30:59.380
I'm just going to pick up the phone and say, hey, Mark, you want to come over?
00:31:01.880
Hey, John, hey, Peter, hey, Christy, hey, I'm going to have a little potluck party in
00:31:11.020
As soon as you invite someone somewhere, they're more inclined to want to invite you somewhere
00:31:18.800
Stop sitting there going, wow, these are my circumstances.
00:31:22.420
Start actually creating circumstances yourself.
00:31:27.760
So let's say somebody is listening to this and they think, you know what?
00:31:36.320
What are some action steps that we need to implement right away?
00:31:39.600
If you're wanting to actually do my official 30-day no alcohol challenge program, you can
00:31:47.740
If you go into that program, essentially, I'm going to send you a video every day, day one,
00:31:54.140
And it's going to give you little tips on how you can get through those 30 days.
00:31:57.340
For example, day three, it might be, hi, it's James.
00:32:01.100
Today, I'm going to teach you what to say to your friends when they're encouraging you
00:32:06.240
You also go into a closed Facebook group where other challenges around the world are going
00:32:10.700
to support you and just give you that accountability.
00:32:15.120
In fact, Charles Duhigg in that book, The Power of Habit says, real change happens in groups
00:32:20.860
So you can go through there through the official 30-day no alcohol challenge.
00:32:24.180
If you want to do it by yourself and you think you can do it by yourself, that's cool as
00:32:30.760
Remove alcohol from your home, whether it's an apartment or a house.
00:32:36.840
Just go through your cupboards, go through your kitchen, and just remove alcohol.
00:32:42.820
If you go into a shopping, into your grocery store, don't walk past the liquor stand.
00:32:49.760
Don't walk past the area where they're selling the wine.
00:32:53.600
If you take the same route home from work each day and you go past a store where you
00:32:57.920
ordinarily would buy alcohol, just go a different route home.
00:33:04.300
When you walk into a bar, the first thing you should do is just walk up to the bar and
00:33:08.340
order a drink, but make sure it's just a water, ice, and a piece of lime.
00:33:18.500
Whenever a waiter says, oh, can I get you started with some drinks?
00:33:25.500
Tell your friends that you're going on a 30-day no alcohol challenge and just tell them, ask
00:33:31.420
You don't have to tell them, or you can tell them.
00:33:35.320
Don't sit at home like a hermit and go, oh, I can't have fun now because I'm not drinking.
00:33:42.120
Push yourself to have the most fun without drinking.
00:33:45.840
Okay, people think it's like, oh, I'm doing the 30-day no alcohol challenge.
00:33:50.000
Now, I've got to be boring and dull for the next 30 days.
00:33:53.340
Get out there and actually double your rate of going out and socializing.
00:33:57.560
See how easy it is to actually socialize without drinking.
00:34:04.380
And then the other thing is just remind yourself why you are doing this.
00:34:09.580
Well, here are some reasons that people who go through my official 30-day no alcohol challenge
00:34:13.540
say they want to lose weight, they want to improve their relationships with their kids
00:34:17.240
or their wife or their girlfriend or their friends.
00:34:24.260
They finally want to take care of a business that they want to do.
00:34:30.860
It's amazing how much better looking you get, Ryan, when you give up alcohol for 30 days.
00:34:35.380
Because all of a sudden, you lose those wrinkles around the eyes.
00:34:37.840
You lose those lines in the forehead because the poison has left your body.
00:34:42.760
All of a sudden, now your skin starts to glow and people go, wow.
00:34:46.320
So just remind yourself of whatever your why is.
00:34:52.780
Remind yourself what you're going to do with the $500 during the month that you save from drinking.
00:35:04.200
Or if you want to do it in a group of people supporting you, just go to 30daynoalcoholchallenge.com and I'll help you out.
00:35:14.140
This is, I think, one of the reasons, one of the things you said was that you think you can't have any more fun.
00:35:19.640
And I think this is one of the reasons that diets, fad diets, don't work as well because it's just this short-term fix.
00:35:25.960
And it's challenging the way that you typically think about things when in all reality, you can have food that's just as good but it's actually healthy for you.
00:35:33.240
It just takes a little bit of an intent and a little bit of effort on your part, especially up front.
00:35:37.720
I think if you front-end load the effort and commitment, it tends to get easier if you do it that way.
00:35:42.980
Look, 30 days without alcohol is just to give you a glimpse, right?
00:35:46.740
It just gives you a glimpse of what life is like without alcohol.
00:35:50.660
According to that book, it takes 66 days to really create a habit.
00:35:56.460
So if you really want to create this habit, go 66 days.
00:36:01.360
You know, just push yourself to go a little bit longer.
00:36:03.640
But listen, don't get freaked out and don't be all like panicky and going, well, what happens if I drink again on day 31 or day 32 or day 33?
00:36:11.780
If you want to go back and have the occasional drink, it's fine.
00:36:16.080
I'm not saying that alcohol is the devil and you should quit forever.
00:36:19.140
Just quit for 30 days so you really understand the difference, so you really understand how much energy you create, how much clarity, how much your sleep improves, how much better looking you get.
00:36:32.160
And then after that, enjoy the occasional drink.
00:36:35.160
Enjoy getting drunk on occasion if you want to.
00:36:39.540
Once you go 30 days without alcohol, man, it's very hard for you to go back to drinking at the same level that you did beforehand.
00:36:46.360
Because all of a sudden you realize just how much it slows you down.
00:36:52.020
Well, James, this has been a great conversation and a lot, a ton of information.
00:36:56.280
I've got to ask you a couple of questions as we wind down today.
00:36:58.560
The first one, I didn't prepare you for this, so I got to apologize and I'm going to give you a second to collect your thoughts on this one.
00:37:03.580
But I ask every single guest, including you, what does it mean to be a man?
00:37:08.580
Well, I always like to say to myself, do what you say you'll do.
00:37:18.800
So if I say I'm going to do something, I will move heaven and earth to move forward with that.
00:37:25.020
Too many men, I think, say I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and then they don't do it.
00:37:29.860
You don't trust yourself and other people around you don't trust you.
00:37:32.820
Even if it's just a seemingly innocent thing like, hey, man, let's meet up on Thursday at 7.30 and we'll catch up.
00:37:39.780
And then on Thursday afternoon, you go, hey, man, sorry, I can't make it tonight.
00:37:45.280
Like even something like that, all of a sudden, you don't trust yourself and your friend doesn't trust you.
00:37:55.860
And try to avoid saying that you're going to do something if you even think that you're not going to do it.
00:38:05.500
Throughout my 20s, I was certainly objectifying women.
00:38:08.380
So I was looking at women as a sport, someone that I could seduce and win over.
00:38:34.580
And always strive to be the best gentleman you can.
00:38:41.420
You already gave us the Alcohol Challenge site.
00:38:43.680
But give us that again in any other way that we can reach out and connect with you.
00:38:55.600
So it's actually spelled Swanwick, even though it's pronounced Swanick.
00:39:03.180
I do a lot of daily snaps now where I give little 10-second tips on life and health and
00:39:12.320
And then Instagram, I've got a YouTube channel, James Swanick.
00:39:15.460
And if you want to get my notes on three of my most favorite books, which is Never Read
00:39:21.020
Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, Winning with People by John C. Maxwell, and Think and Grow Rich
00:39:28.040
If you want to get my personal notes on those books, just go to jameszwannick.com and put
00:39:33.200
your email address in there and I'll send those notes to you.
00:39:39.140
James, I appreciate you and your time and some of the wisdom that you imparted with us
00:39:47.340
Mr. James Swanick dropping some wisdom on what it takes to kick that alcohol habit or really
00:39:53.180
So make sure if you're interested to join his 30-day no alcohol challenge.
00:39:56.780
In the meantime, remember also our inaugural order of man uprising September 15th through
00:40:05.940
We're going to be taking three days in a cabin I leased out for us and we're going to really
00:40:09.480
give you all the tools and the resources to take your life to the next level.
00:40:13.740
So go to orderofman.com slash uprising for all the details.
00:40:16.800
Guys, I look forward to talking to you next week, but until then, take action and become
00:40:22.380
Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast.
00:40:25.340
You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.
00:40:29.000
We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.