The whole world looks different now. I took something I’d been keeping inside for years and threw it out there online. The result was a flood of private messages that convinced me this was the right project at the right time.

I started this for people looking for personal change and cultural change. Whether you’re looking for encouragement to quit or cut back on drinking, or you already quit or cut back and are thinking of sharing your story, or if you simply want to see a shift in the corporate drinking culture, I hope to offer a perspective that resonates.

For those looking to change their drinking, understand that you don’t lack the strength; you lack the system. As you collect tools, you’ll find what works best for you. There are a lot of people offering a lot of strategies and my view is that it’s a bit like nutrition, there are some basics but no one size fits all. Three basics you need are connection, a dopamine reset, and a specific, in-the-moment tool. I’ve written about each on the blog at various points, but here’s the gist.

Connection. Any form of connection will help—a group chat, a zoom meeting, an acquaintance you text that you didn’t drink today, or this week, or this month. Someone who knows that you are struggling and is pulling for you. If you don’t feel ready to do that, just drop me an email with how you’re doing.

Dopamine reset. If you’re a regular drinker and stopping, understand that your dopamine will go through a reset period, and you might feel blah before you feel better. You can mitigate this by doing gentle activities that enhance your mood—getting sunlight first thing in the morning, exercise, being in nature, or (though less gentle) cold plunging, which gives you a huge boost of dopamine and is one of the reasons for its popularity.

Practical tool. Here’s one that helps end-of-day drinkers: Set a calendar reminder for about an hour before you typically want a drink. Then take 10 minutes to do this. First, a minute or so of breathing exercises to focus your attention. Then a few minutes writing and visualizing. In writing, first jot down some of the things you dislike about how drinking is holding you back or negatively affecting you. Then write down all the things you see yourself doing if you stopped drinking for an extended period, say six months or a year (or whatever your goal might be). Write in detail all the things you like about that version of your life for maybe 3 minutes or so. If you can, read them aloud to yourself. Then take a couple of minutes to visualize the positives you wrote down in detail—how you would go about your day, how you would feel, interact with people, move through work and free time. That’s it. Ten minutes. Try it everyday for a week or so. There’s some basic neuroscience behind this but it worked for me and I used it to help me make other big changes. And it can’t hurt. Give it a try and keep it in your toolbox.