12 month anniversary – of failure!
11/06/11 • 2 Comments

  It’s been about 15 months since I signed up to say Hello to 52 Sunday Mornings. It’s been about 12 months since I failed. My failure was not glamorous. I did not fail intentionally. I did not fail thinking I had gone far enough. I failed with a bottle of cheap scotch and woke up in a pile of glass on my balcony. I didn’t write a blog at the time and I’m returning now as I did not do honor to myself, Chris, or the HSM process then. Not in failing; that’s only human. But in not acknowledging that I fell down and in not acknowledging how far forward I had still come. In not acknowledging my failure I did not give myself an opportunity to acknowledge the learnings that came from it. I was unsurprised recently to learn that ‘Competitive’ is one of my 5 dominant personality [...]

My Yes! (by Douglas Morris)
21/05/10 • 2 Comments

Hello friends! Well, it has been almost 3 months since I made a commitment to myself to say No! to alcohol and Yes to positive change in my life. I must be frank and say the other commitment I made was to blog weekly – which plainly hasn’t happened. Lets begin to make up for it.. In my previous blog I spoke briefly about the ease with which I can now say No. After almost 3 months, my behaviours have changed so completely that to say No is no longer even a conscious decision. It’s a reflex action that barely occurs. Those around me are aware of my goals and my friends accept without question that the extent of my drinking will be a carbonated beverage. I’m half grateful that these friends are so open minded they accept my No!, and half disappointed they don’t try a bit harder to [...]

Part Deux – Discoveries (by Douglas Morris)
25/03/10 • 5 Comments

I’m writing to you today from gate lounge 55 at the Sydney domestic airport, preparing to depart back to Brisbane. Whilst I had another post written & ready to publish prior to journeying to Sydney earlier this week, it feels like I wrote that from another time and place (emotionally as well as physically). So I’ll build on what I wanted to say then, but with my new discoveries included. I wrote in my first blog about what I intended my personal YES’s to be, as well as what my NO was and now, some 3-4 weeks in I’m beginning to discover that my real challenge is not going to be in succeeding with the NO. Contrary to my previous experience (changing my diet, or exercise behaviours), saying NO has actually been the easiest part of this experience; I continued, from the outset, to expose myself to situations where alcohol [...]

My Hello Sunday Morning (By Douglas Morris)
12/03/10 • 6 Comments

I started my HSM about two weeks ago on March 1st, but due to the hectic nature of life I haven’t had the opportunity to post my first blog until now; and Boy, what a 2 week period it’s been and additional 50 weeks it promises to be.  I write this at an internet cafe in the Brisbane CBD – fresh from a few hours of work drinks (soda water for me), discovering some of the challenges that I will face and overcome in the next 12 months. But why am I willing to face them? What are my yes’s, my no’s, where have I come from and where will I go?  I started drinking alcohol at about the age of 16 – I wasn’t much of a party kid, but accepted that booze was a social norm and subconsciously at least, thought that if I wanted to be cool [...]