This is why you can’t keep your 7am promises of not drinking tonight.

"I'm not drinking tonight." I would make this fuzzy-headed declaration morning after morning after morning. But on the way home from picking the kids up at school, the resolve had evaporated. 

"I'll just have one glass. It's been such a long day." Game over. 

What happened to all of that determination? 

Enter decision-making fatigue. 

New York Times Magazine explains,  "No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually, it looks for shortcuts." 

By the time you get to the end of your day, you've made zillions of decisions. So when "should I just have the glass of wine?" questions pops up, you're exhausted. The easiest choice is, "screw it, I'll just have one." 

So how do we plan for decision-making fatigue? First, we take the decision completely off the table. Together we commit that we're not drinking for an agreed-upon amount of time. For some clients, we commit right off the bat for 90 days, for others, we take it one week at a time. For others, it's day-to-day. But the purpose is to make this decision for you in advance. 

That way, the decision of "Should I, shouldn't I?" is already made for you. A good night's rest wins.

This strategy also takes "forever" off the table. It removes future-tripping over the next holiday, vacation, birthday, or event. 

What would it feel like to not lose that battle with yourself over and over and over again? 

What would it feel like to stick to the 7 AM promises you made to yourself?