31/08/2026
I’ve had a few people ask why I’ve decided to do 12 months sober.
There wasn’t one massive rock-bottom moment. Alcohol hadn’t destroyed my life. I just started questioning what it was actually adding to it.
A good night would often mean a wasted morning, poor sleep, heightened anxiety, a crap training session and not being fully present for the people and things that matter to me.
I’ve spent long enough dealing with my own head without willingly doing something that makes it ten times worse the next day.
So I set myself a challenge: 12 months without alcohol.
Not because I’m saying I’ll never drink again, and definitely not because I think everyone else needs to stop. I simply want to see what I’m capable of when alcohol isn’t taking away my time, energy or focus.
There’s another reason I wanted to share this through MenTribe.
A lot of the messages we receive from men who are struggling arrive late on Friday and Saturday nights. We would never assume what’s behind any individual message, but alcohol can lower our inhibitions and make difficult thoughts and emotions feel even heavier.
Sometimes we drink to escape what’s happening in our heads, only to wake up feeling worse.
This isn’t a lecture. It’s just an invitation to be honest with yourself:
What is alcohol genuinely adding to your life, and what might it be taking away?
You don’t need to hit rock bottom before choosing to make a change. Your challenge doesn’t need to be 12 months, either. It could be 30 days, cutting back or simply becoming more aware of why you’re drinking.
Mine is 12 months.
I’m nervous about putting this out there, but if sharing it encourages one other man to think about his own relationship with alcohol, then it’s worth it.
Because this is exactly what MenTribe encourages: honesty, personal challenge and making a change before reaching crisis point.
Callum
