Do I Drink Too Much?

For the better part of ten years this is the exact question that I would ask myself every morning in the shower. I would stand there with the water washing over me and wonder if I drank too much. In hindsight, now that I don't drink any more, I realize that if I was asking myself the question, "Do I drink too much" everyday, I quite obviously drank too much. But this begs the question, how much is too much?
The answer to this question would probably vary for each individual, but I know the bottom line was that I came to the conclusion that I drank too much. My average had to be a twelve pack of beer a day. Not a twelve pack every single day, some days on the four or five. But then I would have a "good run" a couple of times a week where I would polish off an 18-pack, or even give a case of beer a run for it's money. So my average had to be around 12 beers a day.
Then one day something happened…….my daughter incarnated into this world and all of the sudden drinking simply didn't make as much sense to me. I simply couldn't see myself being a bad example to her. How could I tell her not to drink, when I myself drank? I couldn't reconcile this, so I stopped. That's right, I walked away from drinking. Now I don't drink. Not even a beer with dinner, because what would be the point of that? Because of the taste? That's what I told myself for years, that I drank beer because I liked the taste. It's a funny thing though, when you walk away from something after being so deeply entrenched for so long, you come to some realizations.
For me, one of those realizations was that I didn't drink beer for the taste. I drank beer because of the way it made me "feel". I refused to admit this when I drank, but after stepping away, I realized that it was true. Why do we as humans spend so much time trying to avoid the truth? Because that's exactly what I did for a little over fifteen years, I avoided that which was true through drinking. I think Marcus Aurelius said it quite poignantly when he said," Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." My perspectives had all become clouded.
So did I go to meetings to come to these realizations? Or did I find religion? No, none of those things. The only thing I can point to is my daughter incarnating into this world to, in my new found perspective, save me. I have a very strong knowing that my daughter was literally sent here to save me. Or was it that she was summoned from somewhere deep within myself?

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country… Montana!
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Beating Addiction

Many people are interested in beating some sort of addiction. There are more "addictions" than can be listed here. The point is that there are literally hundreds of substances and practices that people find themselves addicted to. The subject of addiction and beating addiction is quite literally a billion dollar industry. I myself smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol heavily for the better part of 20 years, so I suppose I have some experience with the subject of "being addicted". I also have some experience with beating addiction, seeing as how I walked away from both practices.
The single biggest thing I learned through the process of beating my addictions was to not buy into all the hype. What do I mean by this? What I mean is that it seems like everywhere you turn you see or hear someone telling you how difficult beating addictions is going to be. I found out that this was all hype, usually designed to sell me something. Rather than listening and buying into all of this hype, I simply went in a different direction.
I chose to tell myself how easy stopping both practices was going to be rather than how difficult it was going to be. I did this for at least six months before I actually stopped. There were no timetables in place, I just tell you that for reference. I simply stopped buying into all of the hype.
Soon the allure of both practices began to fade. I started noticing how stinky cigarettes were, and how much they made my clothes stink. I started hating waking up with a hangover. I started liking the fact that I drank so much, less and less. With me not buying into or believing all the hype about how difficult beating my addictions was going to be, the act of actually engaging in the addictions was becoming more and more of a struggle.
Soon the day came when I said to myself, "I'm done", and with that, there was no longer a battle. I've heard it said that addiction is defined as never getting enough of what you don't want in the first place. This is exactly what my addictions were to me. I never really wanted to drink or smoke in the first place, then one day I woke up and the better part of 20 years were gone (or at least that's how it seemed). My entire point to this article is to let everyone know that beating addiction isn't nearly as difficult as it's sometimes made out to be. If I did it, anyone can do it.

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of http://www.JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country…..Montana!
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Are You Really Addicted To Nicotine?

I'm a person who walked away from smoking forever about eight months ago and now I can't help but ask this question. I realize that everyone on the television, radio, and internet claims that nicotine is addictive, but is this really true or are they simply trying to get you to buy into the hype so they can get your money? I have to tell you, as a person who smoked for fifteen years and walked away without the aid of any gum, patches, pills, or anything else, I have to tell you that I honestly believe it's all hype!
Really, if it were true and there are actually withdrawals and the like associated with quitting smoking, wouldn't I have experienced some of them? Were there times I wanted a cigarette? Of course, but my conclusion is that it was because I was used to sticking cancer sticks into my pie hole for fifteen years, not because I was addicted to anything. I was just used to smoking. I mean anything that you engage in for 15 years is bound to feel like "normal", right?
The conclusion that I came to is that I wasn't actually addicted to anything and that it was all hype. So I decided not to buy into the hype any longer. Anytime I heard about being addicted or how hard quitting smoking was going to be, I simply said to myself, "I don't believe that, it's going to bee easy to stop." I did this while I was still smoking. When I was by myself smoking, I would look at the cigarette and say the same basic thing directly to the cigarette.
And do you know what. Within a couple of months of doing that, I went in my pack to grab a smoke only to find out that it was my last one. I looked at that cigarette and said, "this is it, I'm done." I proceeded to smoke that cigarette and haven't touched one since that day.
It was literally as simple as that. I've realized that quitting smoking is what you think about quitting and not about being addicted to nicotine. You're addicted to nicotine if you believe that you're addicted to nicotine. It's as simple as that, and if you buy into the hype, you'll believe that you're addicted to nicotine. I'm simply telling you that you're not really addicted to anything you just think you are. You can do exactly what I did and be free of cigarettes and nicotine forever. Unless of course you believe that you can't.

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country…..Montana!
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Are You Having Trouble Quitting Smoking?

About six months ago I finally stopped choking down cancer sticks once and for all, after being a smoker for more than fifteen years. I learned a few things in the process of quitting that I know can help other people quit as well. And the best part is that I'm going to give you what I learned for nothing! I am in no way affiliated with any e- book, "program", or newsletter to help you stop smoking. I'm just a guy who quit and would love to help other people do the same thing that I did.
I had tried both patches and gum in the past to quit, and they never worked. They would seem to work for a while, and then the next thing I knew, I was smoking again. During those experiences I realized something…….I was going to have to change the way I thought about quitting smoking. Simply changing the way nicotine got into my body obviously wasn't going to change anything. So that's exactly what I did. I changed the way I thought about both smoking and quitting smoking.
I began telling myself how easy it was going to be to stop smoking. Everyone always tells you how horrible quitting smoking is. I simply started telling myself that it wasn't going to be that bad. When I was smoking, I would hold the cigarette up and say to it, "I've got this. This is going to be no problem." I also stopped listening to all of the people around me that said how hard it would be. I would just extract myself from any of their conversations about smoking or quitting smoking.
Then, one day I opened my pack of cigarettes to take one out and there was only one left. I looked at the cigarette, and said to myself, "Okay, this is it. I'm done." I went outside, smoked that cigarette, and haven't touched one since. If you change the way you think about smoking (even while the act continues), eventually you won't want to smoke any more. For me the process of changing my thinking about smoking took about six months.
Someone once said, "Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change." That's exactly what happened with me and smoking. I changed the way I looked at smoking, and the act of smoking changed. It's truly as simple as that. Were there times that I felt like smoking, after I had quit? Of course. The difference was that I didn't smoke anymore, so I didn't. I also stopped hanging around people who smoked, which helped as well. And it got easier and easier everyday. Then the next thing I knew, I smelled a cigarette while walking in a parking lot and couldn't believe how gross it smelled. Yep, it was over for good. I was a non-smoker once again, just like God intended. Just remember that quitting smoking, like most things in life, is more about how you think about it than anything else.

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country…..Montana!
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Are You An Alcoholic?

This is a question that I used to ask myself all the time. I would have to guess that it happened once a day. I was well aware of the fact that I drank everyday, some more than others, but the point was that I drank everyday, therefore I always wondered if I was an alcoholic. But then I would realize that I was never late for work, did a good job at work, and all around "handled my bossiness", so I would simply dismiss the question and go on about my life.
But still, the question was always there. I basically went by the definition of an alcoholic that Dylan Thomas offered us, " An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do." Then one day I woke up and had had enough. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, so I stopped drinking. Did I attend meetings or make a big deal out of it? No, I just stopped, and some very interesting things began to happen. I began to come to realizations that I had never considered.
I always thought of drinking as something anyone who was halfway cool, just did. Questions like do you want to go have a beer? Or there's going to be beer there, right? , had become so common to me that they were completely normal and in order. People, who didn't drink, somehow scared me. How could someone not drink? The entire idea of not drinking perplexed me.
Then after a couple of weeks of not drinking, it felt as if my head was suddenly clear. As if I was waking up from a nap in many ways and what I've realized since is that I was waking up from a nap. Through the act of stopping, I realized that I had spent the better part of 15 years drinking. 15 years! And the funniest and most perplexing thing about this realization was the fact that after 15 years of time I hadn't progressed much. Monetarily I was in the same place that I was 15 years prior, if not worse off and emotionally I was much the same as well. This initial realization scared me a little bit, for God's sake, I had completely wasted 15 years all for the sake of having a few beers.
Then I realized the truth. My drinking was something that I had to go through to learn these lessons. There was no other way for me to learn them. But it still kind of upsets me that it took me 15 years! It seems like I could have learned them in 5 or 6. But that's not the way this wonderful life works. It's a marathon, not a sprint and for me, I had to spend 15 years of my marathon learning these lessons.
So was I an alcoholic? Are you an alcoholic? Who knows, at the end of the day I don't like to make distinctions like that anyway. The bottom line is that if your asking yourself the question a lot (as I was), you mat want to consider a change? I'm sure glad I did. I can attest to the fact that life is a ton more enjoyable and fulfilling when your not sleepwalking.

Trevor Kugler is Co-founder of http://www.JRWfishing.com
Trevor has more than 20 years of fishing experience, and raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country....Montana.
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Are You Actually Addicted To Cigarettes?

There are a lot of people who will have you believe that you're addicted to cigarettes. That smoking is a habit that's more difficult to get rid of than breathing oxygen. That killing your first born would be easier than quitting smoking. What I find funny about this little fact is that all the people saying these things have one thing in common. They want to sell you something to make quitting cigarettes easier. That's right, the want to make money off of you. So it's in their best interest that you believe that you can't break the addiction without the help of whatever they may be selling.
I came to this conclusion after I personally walked away from cigarettes after sucking them down for the better part of fifteen years. And I walked away from cigarettes without the aid of anything but myself. Throughout my fifteen years of smoking I had tried to quit with the aid of gum and patches with no success. It wasn't until I did it without the aid of anything other than myself that I came to the realizations I'm going to speak about in this article.
The biggest realization that I came to was the fact that I was never really addicted to anything. I had simply engaged in an activity for so long that it had become "normal" to me. Smoking cigarettes had become a habit. That's it. I realized that smoking cigarettes was mental. It was more important what I thought about smoking cigarettes than the actual act of smoking them. I came to the realization that I wasn't addicted to anything!
This realization changed my entire perspective, and I quickly walked away from cigarettes forever. Honestly, isn't smoking disgusting? It really is, and this is coming from someone who engaged in the practice for more than 15 years. I think about it now and it's just disgusting. IU was walking through the grocery store the other day and someone walked by me reeking of cigarettes. It was disgusting, and then I thought to myself, "That was you just a little while ago you idiot!" It's amazing how when you're involved in things, your perspective gets all screwed up.
The bottom line is that if you want to quit smoking cigarettes, you can. You're not actually addicted to anything. You've just become so used to smoking that you think it's going to be difficult to stop. That's it. And I'm telling you, it's not that hard to stop smoking. Just believe that you can, and that can be enough. Remember when you used to not smoke. Remember when you could run up a flight of stairs and not feel like you were going to die. Remember all of those things, because it wasn't that long ago that you didn't even know what a cigarette was, let alone how to smoke it! And believe in yourself. It's amazing what a human being can accomplish when he/she believes in themselves.

Trevor Kugler - Co-founder of JRWfishing.com Trevor has more than 15 years of business experience and 25 years of fishing experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country - Montana.
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Do You Want To Go Have A Beer Or Three? Me Too

I find it perplexing how a person's thinking can become... well clouded. I quit drinking quite a while ago and it seems to me that things become clearer almost by the day. I was having a discussion with a friend about my drinking, back when I drank. People used to say, "come on over and have a beer" all of the time. And, of course, I would oblige them. The funny thing was it was never, and I mean never A beer. It always ended up being at least three beers and most times many more than that.
Was I an alcoholic? I don't know, but I do know I drank a lot. In my estimation, it became too much, so I stopped. It took me the better part of fifteen years to come to this conclusion, but I finally came to the realization that I was drinking too much. The bottom line was that I drank quite a lot of beer. I more or less stayed away from the hard stuff, mostly because I liked the way beer 'tasted', or at least that's what I told myself.
Then recently I found myself with an old friend, reminiscing about the days when I used to drink with him, and something came to me. I said to him how I find it funny that for the most part I drank a 12-pack on most nights. Some nights more and some less, but the average had to be about twelve. Then I said to him, "Bob, I bought a twelve pack of Coke the other day and I can't even imagine sitting down and drinking it all in one sitting! It amazes me that I used to do that exact thing with beer." After that conversation I realized that at the time in my life when I did slam a 12-pack in one sitting, I wasn't thinking clearly at all. Not even close.
Just like it being perplexing about how clouded your thinking can become, it's equally perplexing how clear your thinking can become when you sober up. I'm not at all a religious person, but have to assume there was a higher power involved in this process. All of these thoughts and realizations just fit together too perfectly for any other explanation that I'm aware of. All I know is that there was a time when going out and "having a beer" actually meant going out and having at least three.

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country.....Montana!
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Are Bad Habits Really That Hard To Stop?

The dictionary describes addiction as: the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. Okay, now we know exactly what an addiction is. And I think that we would all agree that people think of being addicted to both alcohol and cigarettes. I also want everyone to understand that the question posed in this article isn't coming from someone who has only an academic view of addiction. I've personally quit both drinking and smoking after engaging in both proudly for the better part of 15 years. Was I an alcoholic? I don't make distinctions like that, but I know that I drank a twelve pack of beer a day, on average. I also smoked a pack a day on average for the entire time I drank alcohol. It's perplexing how the two coincided. Once I quit drinking, I then no longer wanted to smoke anymore either. So I stopped smoking as well.
My point to all of this is that I quit both of them and it wasn't nearly as difficult as I was led to believe. At the time I smoked, everyday I heard from some well meaning person how difficult it was going to be to quit smoking. And the same rule was true for drinking, although most people don't talk about stopping drinking. I think that's because drinking alcohol isn't looked upon as a "bad" thing in our culture. Smoking is looked upon as being almost as bad as carrying a loaded gun around and firing it indiscriminately, while drinking is accepted as being fine in moderation. Rather than quitting drinking, people talk about cutting down. So people say things like, "I like to have a beer or two, what's the problem?" Or "I'm not an alcoholic; those people have to go to meetings." In reality, they're both bad for you and everything you hear either justifies the action or explains how difficult stopping the action will be.
What I realized as I was quitting both bad habits was the fact that stopping them was in my mind, rather than some physical addiction that we all hear so much about. Let's take smoking for example. I tried to quit smoking three times before I actually made it. I tried the gum (which seemed to help) and quitting cold turkey. The problem was I didn't change my thinking. I still thought it was going to be difficult, so it was and never stuck. Then I changed the way I thought about quitting smoking. I said things to myself like, "this isn't going to be hard, I'm just not going to smoke" or "It's all in my head, I'm just used to smoking a cigarette, it's become normal to me and that is an illusion". I did the exact same thing with drinking. Doing these things and not putting myself in the vicinity of people who did, made it easy to stop both behaviors.
My point is that once I was free and clear of both behaviors I realized that it was more about what I thought about the substances than the substances themselves. If I was "addicted", it sure wasn't that hard to stop either of them. My great realization in the process was that it was all mental.

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country.....Montana!
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Addiction - A 1-Step Program

Before I explain the 1-step program to help you with addiction, let me explain that I was personally involved in both drinking and smoking for the better part of 15 years. I was a smoker to the tune of a pack of cigarettes a day and drinker to the tune of at least 8 beers a day. I didn't keep a running tally of my drinking, but 8 beers a day had to be the average. Some days more, some days less, but my average had to be eight. Having explained how deeply involved I was in both practices, now let me explain how it was that I walked away from them forever.
I heard a great quote that stated, "Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change." This might sound incredibly obvious, but as you let it sink in, and think about it for a while, that quote id quite profound. So profound, as a matter of fact, that it's basically all I did to walk away from both smoking and drinking forever. That's right, I changed the way I thought about both practices, and the act of engaging in both practices changed. It's true, and I did it without 12 step programs, pills, patches, meetings, or drugs.
I simply changed my thinking, or "what I thought" about both drinking and smoking, and very quickly the act of doing them changed. By very quickly, I'm talking about a six to twelve month process. I began thinking about how easy stopping was going to be, even while I was still engaging in both practices. Rather than telling myself how difficult stopping was going to be (which is what most people do), I told myself how easy it was going to be. Rather than telling myself how horrible the nicotine withdrawals were going to be, I did the opposite and told myself that I would have no problem.
As I said, I did this for six months to a year and during that time both practices became a complete and utter hassle. The way I felt after waking up hung over started to seem like it wasn't worth it. Being out of breath after very minor physical activity seemed terrible. I was beginning to tire of the entire process. Soon the day came when I looked in my pack of cigarettes and realized that there was only one left. Rather than going to get a new pack, I looked at that cigarette and said, "This is it, I'm done." I proceeded to smoke that cigarette and haven't smoked again.
Drinking followed closely behind, with a very similar circumstance occurring. The stopping of both of these "addictions" was as easy as changing my thinking. I realize that this may sound crazy and unrealistic, but it's what I did. These things don't have to be difficult, unless of course you believe they do, in which case they are and I surely can't help you out.

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country…..Montana!
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