Goal for January: Dry-ish-athlon

It seems that along with my blog, a good friend of mine John Wilson has also started a blog. I’d like to take credit as the inspirational thought leader muthaluvva that I am, but I can’t. In John’s first blog post, he talks briefly about 2012 and what he achieved, and he achieved a fair bit!

However interestingly he is also setting goals for the year, resolutions that are likely to be forgotten, oh no, he’s setting goals for the month. The first one, detailed in his post, is to complete the Dryathlon, which is giving up the sauce for 30 days for cancer research.

Brilliant! I thought.

As such, I’m also jumping on the monthly challenge bandwagon. My Goals for 2013 are still valid, but each month I will set myself a challenge, at the end of the month I’ll review to see if the challenge is a failure or a success.

Hell, it’s content for this site, and it’ll make my life more interesting. Even Matt Cutts recommends it.

It also marks the first time I’ve listened to what Matt Cutts has said and implemented it since June 2007.

As such, my goal for January is to drink less.

No, I’m not doing the Dryathlon. I’ve failed already: TNA are in Manchester at the end of January and have kind of promised a couple of my mates that we’ll have a few beers before the show, so that’s a no-goer, but hopefully before that Friday, I’ll have drank very little.

Incidentally, rather than just “drink less”, I’m instead going to set a target. I did a bit of research on the NHS website on the amount of alcohol each drink contained, as well as the recommended alcohol intake for a man in a week, and then decided to scrap the figures, and instead go for this goal:-

I will drink a maximum of 10 pints (or the alcoholic equivalent – 20 units) in January

I’m tracking my drinks using a Google Doc I’ve put together for the month, you can see it here. Providing I don’t drink 10 pints in one session, I should be able to remember what I’ve drunk where and update accordingly. I’ve also identified two things to target.

• Go See More Movies – The pub is pretty much the de-facto thing to do when bored, but here’s the thing – I’ve started recently going to movies instead when I’m bored. Largely due to the fact most people who know me know that I’ve got glaring gaps in my movie knowledge, I’ve decided to put it right. Hell, January I was planning only going to see The Hobbit, but can do more films.
• Not take the TNA in Manchester Day Off – In truth, the only two stumbling blocks I can forsee are at the end of the month, which is the aforementioned TNA UK Tour and Colwyn Bay are playing Brackley Town the day after. Both of those will be relatively boozy. As such, I’m going to avoid taking the whole day off for TNA in Manchester, but instead opting for half a day off. This reduces the drinking time, plus also creates a journey from town to my house and back again. The hope is then to meet my compatriots a little bit later on in the day, probably not even in the pub, so we can enjoy the show relatively clear headed (I’m not used to drinking at wrestling, largely being a performer, so it’s no big deal).

Providing I can do those two things, I should be fine.

I’m also imposing a forfeit (if I fail) as well as a reward (if I succeed). They will be announced on the challenge completion. Wish me luck!

Also, you can follow John Boy’s descent into soberity madness on Twitter, and you can donate to Cancer Research to support him on Justgiving.