Journey to the Sunnyside

We’re a few weeks into January — past the excitement of starting, but still early enough to choose again. In this episode, I share how I’m structuring a personal experiment this year, not as a rule or resolution, but as a way to support what I want more of: energy, clarity, consistency, and presence. Using examples straight from my journal, I walk through a simple framework you can use at any point in the year:
  • Clarifying your “why” by category
  • Turning it into purpose statements
  • Choosing a meaningful container without forever language
Whether you’re right on track or already feeling off course, this episode isn’t about restriction or perfection. It’s about paying attention to what supports you, and what quietly takes from you, and choosing from there.

CONNECT WITH SUNNYSIDE:

ABOUT SUNNYSIDE:
 
Sunnyside is the #1 alcohol health app that helps you drink less without any shame, guilt, or pressure to quit. Optimize your alcohol habits to achieve benefits like sleeping better, losing weight, feeling more energy, and saving money. We know that an all-or-nothing approach doesn’t work for everyone, so we focus on helping you set your own goals, celebrate small wins, and build a lasting system of accountability. As a result, 96.7% of our members see a big drop in their drinking after 90 days.

We now offer Sunnyside Med, a new program that provides access to compounded naltrexone, a medication that can reduce alcohol cravings at the brain level, offering a more clinical pathway for people who need it. Sunnyside Med is a complete, holistic approach to help you drink less or quit, including coaching, community, habit change, education, and more to help you create longterm change while the medication does its work.

Disclaimer: This podcast is not intended as medical advice, and the views of the guests may not represent the views of Sunnyside. If you’re concerned about your health or alcohol use, please consider seeking advice from a doctor.


Creators and Guests

Host
Mike Hardenbrook
#1 best-selling author of "No Willpower Required," neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert.

What is Journey to the Sunnyside?

Journey to the Sunnyside is a top 1% podcast, reaching over 500,000 listeners every week. It’s your guide to exploring mindful living with alcohol—whether you're cutting back, moderating, or thinking about quitting.

While Sunnyside helps you reduce your drinking, this podcast goes further, diving into topics like mindful drinking, sober curiosity, moderation, and full sobriety. Through real stories, expert insights, and science-backed strategies, we help you find what actually works for your journey.

Hosted by Mike Hardenbrook, a #1 best-selling author and neuroscience enthusiast, the show is dedicated to helping people transform their relationship with alcohol—without shame, judgment, or rigid rules.

This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the leading platform for mindful drinking. Want to take the next step in your journey? Head over to sunnyside.co for a free 15-day trial.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in our episodes do not necessarily represent those of Sunnyside. We’re committed to sharing diverse perspectives on health and wellness. If you’re concerned about your drinking, please consult a medical professional. Sunnyside, this podcast, and its guests are not necessarily medical providers and the content is not medical advice. We do not endorse drinking in any amount.

Speaker 1:

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another one of these ten minute Mondays on a Tuesday after the holiday weekend. I hope you had a great restful weekend, and now we're actually into our January. And at this point, some of you are right on track with your January commitment. Some of you are maybe mostly there.

Speaker 1:

And then some of you, you might feel like you may have gone off course. And that's okay because this episode is gonna be about choosing again. And if you're feeling like you're on track, I'm going to help you to reinforce what's already working. And I want to remind you that January 1, it's just a day. It only matters because we place importance on it.

Speaker 1:

But you know what? Today we can do the exact same thing. You can choose a meaningful reset point at any time. So what I want to share today is how I'm structuring an experiment myself this year that is anchored to purpose and growth. And I'm gonna use my own real examples here in this episode straight out of my journal because guess what?

Speaker 1:

I'm doing real life right here with you as well. And so here's what I'm doing. As a birthday gift to myself, which was just a few weeks ago on January 6, I decided I'm gonna take a year off of the alcohol. But I wanna be clear here that this episode is not about the year. It's actually about the approach that I'm taking.

Speaker 1:

So as you're listening, this could be for a month. This could be for a weekend. This could be for a season, whatever fits your life. The point here is how you build it. Now every year, I have a small tradition that I've shared here before that I don't drink on New Year's Eve.

Speaker 1:

It's just something I've done for a long time. It's how I like to start the new year. I wake up feeling good about myself, and I think it just kinda clears the path for the year to come. And this year was exactly that. Now what's different, though, is a few days later, it was my birthday, and it was coming up.

Speaker 1:

And I remember thinking to myself, you know what? I kinda wanna run an experiment this year, and why don't I make it a birthday gift to myself? Just an experiment, no forever commitment. And so instead of just deciding on the moment there, I did what I usually do when I want some clarity is that I opened up my journal. So I'm gonna share this not because the details of it matter, but I want to share it because it's an example that maybe you can follow that would be useful on the process that I use.

Speaker 1:

And so at the top of the page, I just simply wrote my why. Just why this would even matter enough to commit to for a full year. So I wrote my why categories. And so I started with health and under health, I wrote, I want to wake up every day with deep appreciation. I want early mornings with real quality sleep.

Speaker 1:

I want physical recovery and strength. I want energy. And honestly, I want to see how far I can push that energy. How good can I feel? And I also put, I want to train for a mountain bike race.

Speaker 1:

Because back in 2018, 2019, I used to race pretty seriously, and I trained really hard for that, and I was really fit. And then the pandemic hit, all the races were canceled, and honestly, I just never really came back to it. It's a lot of work. And so for years, I've been saying, you know what? I really wanna get back into racing, and I just have it.

Speaker 1:

So part of this year is really simple. I wanna be in the best shape of my life. And what that requires is recovery, consistency, and tons of energy and motivation. And then I got to my goals. I just simply wrote a list.

Speaker 1:

I have the podcast here and the goals around that. I have my company Cloud Dine. I want to start doing art in the mornings again, and I want to have deeper spirituality. And this year is a big goal. I really want to reach over 1,000,000 people that I can help to feel better, think differently, and make changes without shames or extremes when it comes to alcohol.

Speaker 1:

And if I want to help people make these big changes, then I need to show up as my best self. And that kind of impact really requires a lot of clarity, consistency, balancing mornings. And I know myself well enough to know that when those are on track, everything else ends up working out well. Next, I got to spirituality and I had to get honest with myself. Under spirituality, I wrote, even small amounts steal my magic.

Speaker 1:

My goal is to dive deeper into spirituality and to bring back regular practices around breath work and meditation, especially the breath work because I kind of let that slip because it takes a lot of effort, I'll be honest. And so this was my observation that depth matters more now than it used to in past years. So I recognize that and stillness matters and feeling connected matters. And I know that all of this, it supports what I'm looking for, and I also know what doesn't. And then finally, I got to family.

Speaker 1:

And the goal really is for to be the example, the example father to show that alcohol, it's totally optional. And then when it comes to my relationship, better sleep, better health, and just being more present is going to make me a better man and a better partner. And at that point, I just felt like that was enough to move it to the next step. So instead of framing it like, Hey, I am going to take a year off from alcohol, I turned each category into a statement of purpose. And here's the fill in the blank that I used.

Speaker 1:

My purpose right now is to blank so that blank. That's it. Really simple. And so for me, it became this: For health, my purpose right now is to support my sleep, recovery, and strength so that I can train hard and see what my body is capable of. When it comes to my goals, my purpose right now is to protect my mornings and my clarity so that I can create consistently and help over a million people this year.

Speaker 1:

And then for spirituality, my purpose right now is to build a regular breath work and meditation practice so that I can go deeper and feel more connected. And then for family, I said my purpose right now is to model presence and intentionality so that my kids see that alcohol is optional. And then marriage, my purpose right now is to show up rested, healthy, and present in my relationships. And then I ask myself one honest question. Does alcohol right now for me in my life support these purposes, or does it quietly take a little bit from them?

Speaker 1:

And for me, right now, it takes. Again, there's nothing wrong with alcohol if we have a place for it in our lives. But for right now, this was the honest question I had to ask myself, and that was just enough for it to matter. And this honestly, when I framed it this way, it doesn't feel like I'm giving up anything. I'm actually stepping into more.

Speaker 1:

And so from there, I chose my container, the amount of time. And in this case, it was birthday to birthday, one year. And that's the container that feels right to me. I'm just running an experiment here. And again, you can run your own version of this with whatever timeline that matches what feels right to you.

Speaker 1:

And again, here is my process and how I kind of landed where I am today. I wrote down my why by category. Then I turned each into my own purpose statement using the formula, my purpose right now is to blank, so that blank. And then I asked whether alcohol supports or interrupts that. And then I chose a meaningful container, as in a timeline that I wanted to commit to.

Speaker 1:

And then honestly, I dropped any forever language. I'm not saying I'm doing this forever. I'm not saying this can't possibly change if it goes in a direction where, hey, I actually don't think this is helping me. This is holding me back mentally. I am leaving that flexibility there.

Speaker 1:

But right now I'm committing because this feels like I'm stepping into more. And I'm going to say this candidly, I'm doing this imperfectly. And I know that, and I'm actually excited about that. But talking about it here, it's accountability, it's community support, and it's part of the process. And so I want to leave you today with this.

Speaker 1:

If January didn't go quite as planned so far, just take it as something that you can learn from. And also point back to January 1 and realize it's just a day. It's just a day like today. And today, if you want to start over, choose meaning again, anchor it to purpose instead of restriction and treat it like an experiment. And then always pay attention to what supports you and also have a lookout for what quietly takes away from you.

Speaker 1:

Alright. Thanks for hanging out with me this week. Thanks for supporting me. If you got anything out of this podcast, rate and review wherever you're listening to. Let me know how January is going.

Speaker 1:

Send me an email to Mike@sunnyside.co. I'd love to hear from you. And until next time, cheers to your mindful drinking journey.