Year Of Living Sober

What’s it all about?

Does this booze blog have a mission?

What about a ‘mission statement’?

In answering the big blog questions, today I thought it’d be cool to come up with my own mission statement for Year of Living Sober.

Cool?

Yeah.

Hey, why should Cadbury’s and Coca Cola have all the fun? Why can’t a lone blogger with a taste for wine and self-mortification get in on the core-value act? He can. He will. Here he goes…

What is this booze blog all about?

This is my 98th post. Coming up to my hundredth post here at Year of Living Sober (see what a great name I chose for this blog is, I mean talk about ‘saying what’s in the can, on the can’) I thought it was about time to answer this question of what’s the point of writing a blog about a social experiment in temporary teetotalism?

Sure, I’ve got a great slogan (Year of Living Sober: When a year off is on) and I’ve already covered some of my personal reasons for going without alcohol for a year HERE but precisely why did I decide to blog about it too? Where the hell is the YOLS mission statement?

“Why, Ben? Why? What are you trying to achieve with your YOLS blog?”

The answer is simple:

More HAPPY, less SAD.

“Does this booze blog have a mission?”

“Yes it does!”

YOLS blog is about creating ‘More Happy’ and ‘Less Sad’—for me and anyone else who gets it. Hopefully, that means YOU!

Apart from the added, and personally welcome, pressure which comes from making a public declaration about a goal or intention, by writing this blog I hoped to make a bit of a ‘statement’ about how to increase your quality of life too.

By removing any shame around my old habit, and just accepting it for what it had become—drinking alcohol almost every night—I wanted to say:

“Hey, it’s okay to try something new. It might even be a lot of fun.”

I wanted more happy and less sad.

Through my blog I wanted to focus on writing—something that brings me a lot of joy—about something else I also love, drinking; maybe NOT drinking could make me, and, by way of my writing about it in a fun way, others happier than if I’d just continued with my habit unchecked?

YEAR OF LIVING SOBER MISSION STATEMENT:

Year of Living Sober is about healthy evolution. What started with a simple goal for one guy (me!) to give up drinking alcohol for one year has, through the YOLS blog (and other social media) grown to express a broader philosophy and attitude towards drinking which could be succinctly expressed as a mission statement, in slightly corporate speak, thus:

By valuing humor, honesty, acceptance, and our ever present choice to make a healthy change, Year of Living Sober’s mission is to promote an alternative and fun approach to enjoying life—with or without alcohol.

So there you have it. My booze blog mission statement. I’m not trying to change the world but I am happy to play my part in a chain of change. While I never want to come off in anyway preachy or, heaven forbid (see what I did there?) condescending, I would love to create positive vibes which start from my tiny corner of the universe and maybe spread out to, oh, I don’t know? USA? Canada? England?—and wherever somebody, somewhere is waking up with a hangover and thinking “Maybe I should cut back on the drinking for a bit? Couldn’t hurt, could it?”

“No, it couldn’t,” is how I’d reply. “No it couldn’t hurt to take a break from booze for a while. Going from my experience, it might even help.”

My name is Ben and I’m a dipsomaniac.

Today is Day 237 of my Year of Living Sober.

Little Booze Joke

How many booze bloggers does it take to change a lightbulb? One. But he’’ll have at least two links to other booze blogs similar but different to his.

How about you? Have you ever done a ‘Mission Statement’ for yourself? Love to get your comment.