SOBER OCTOBER RESOURCES
Practical support to help you through 31 alcohol-free days — including a free calendar, audiobook chapters, tips, tools and coaching.
Sober October is an opportunity to take alcohol out of your life for 31 days and discover what changes.
This is my sixth Sober October, having stopped drinking on 8 December 2020 after a 35-year relationship with alcohol. Since then, becoming alcohol-free has changed my health, sleep, energy, confidence, thinking and ultimately the direction of my life.
I wrote Walking Back to Happiness – The Secret to Alcohol-Free Living & Well-Being about that first year and the lessons I learned along the way. Today, I also work one-to-one with people who want to change their own relationship with alcohol.
So throughout October I’m bringing together some of the resources, ideas and tools that helped me — and that I now use in my alcohol-free coaching — in one place.
You don’t have to work out the rest of your life today.
Start with October. Better still, start with today.
DOWNLOAD FREE 31 DAY CALENDAR
START HERE: YOUR FREE 31-DAY SOBER OCTOBER CALENDAR
Don’t spend Day One worrying about Day 31.
Print out the free 31-Day Sober October Calendar, put it somewhere you’ll see it every day and tick off each alcohol-free day as you complete it.
There’s something powerful about watching the evidence build in front of you.
Day 1. Day 3. One week. Two weeks. Three weeks. Then 31 days.
But today, your job is simply box number one.
DOWNLOAD THE 31-DAY CALENDAR
6 THINGS TO DO ON DAY ONE
If you’re starting Sober October, here are six simple things you can do today to make the month easier.
1. Put the 31 days somewhere you can see them
Use the calendar, tick off each alcohol-free day and make your progress visible. Don’t stare at 31 empty boxes. Concentrate on the one in front of you.
2. Change the routine around your usual drinking time
If 6pm normally means pouring a glass of wine, change what happens at 6pm. Go for a walk, go to the gym, cook, read, phone somebody, listen to something, take the dog out or start a new series.
You are not simply removing alcohol. You are beginning to create a different pattern.
3. Give yourself some milestones
Don’t make 31 October your only success point. Acknowledge Day 1, Day 3, one week, two weeks, three weeks and finally the full 31 days.
4. Tell someone you’re doing it
Tell your partner, family or friends. Do it with somebody else. Post about it if you want to. Saying “I’m doing this” creates accountability and support.
5. Start a journal
Spend a few minutes each day writing down what went well, what was difficult, what surprised you, when you thought about drinking, what helped and what changes you are beginning to notice.
By the end of the month, you’ll have a record of how far you’ve come — and a much better understanding of your own relationship with alcohol.
6. Stock the fridge
Make sure you have alcohol-free drinks you genuinely enjoy available before your usual drinking time arrives. Remove the unnecessary decision of wondering what you are going to drink instead.
FREE AUDIO CHAPTERS FROM WALKING BACK TO HAPPINESS
Sometimes it helps to understand why we do what we do.
Throughout Sober October I’m making four complete chapters from the audiobook of Walking Back to Happiness available to listen to completely free.
CRAVINGS & WILLPOWER — AVAILABLE NOW
Why do cravings happen? Why can willpower feel strong one minute and disappear the next?
Chapter 13 explores cravings, urges, willpower and some of the ways we can respond differently when the desire to drink arrives.
LISTEN TO CRAVINGS & WILLPOWER FREE
THE HABIT LOOP — COMING IN OCTOBER
Drinking often becomes attached to particular times, places, emotions and routines.
The Habit Loop explores the cue → routine → reward cycle and why changing what happens around your drinking can be so important.
THE MIRAGE OF MODERATION — COMING IN OCTOBER
For me, moderation eventually became something that required an extraordinary amount of thinking, rules and negotiation.
This chapter explores my own experience of trying to control drinking and why moderation eventually became a mirage for me.
IF YOU FALL OFF THE WAGON — COMING IN OCTOBER
One drink does not have to become a verdict on you or on your entire month.
This chapter looks at setbacks, all-or-nothing thinking, learning from what happened and deciding what you do next.
EXPLORE ALL FREE AUDIO CHAPTERS
JOIN THE WALKING BACK TO HAPPINESS SOBER OCTOBER TEAM
I’ve created a Walking Back to Happiness Sober October Team raising money for Alcohol Change UK.
If you’re taking on the 31 days yourself, I’d love you to join us.
You can join the team and fundraise, support somebody taking part or simply make a donation.
It gives the month another purpose: not simply changing something for yourself, but helping Alcohol Change UK tackle alcohol harm at the same time.
BUTTON: JOIN THE SOBER OCTOBER TEAM
WALKING BACK TO HAPPINESS
Walking Back to Happiness – The Secret to Alcohol-Free Living & Well-Being tells the story of my own first year alcohol-free.
I didn’t write it from the perspective of somebody looking in from the outside.
I lived it.
The book follows those first days, weeks and months and explores many of the things that helped me understand and change my relationship with alcohol, including habits, beliefs, cravings, willpower, mindfulness, exercise, identity, purpose and the benefits that began appearing when alcohol stopped taking up so much space in my life.
If you’re doing Sober October, the book or audiobook can accompany you throughout your own 31-day experiment.
EXPLORE WALKING BACK TO HAPPINESS
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
WANT TO MAKE A BIGGER CHANGE?
For some people, Sober October is simply a month away from alcohol.
For others, 31 days creates a different question:
What if I don’t want to go back to how I was drinking before?
Alongside writing Walking Back to Happiness, I work one-to-one with people who want to change their relationship with alcohol and become alcohol-free.
My coaching combines life coaching, NLP, hypnotherapy and practical behaviour-change techniques. We look at the habits, beliefs, triggers and patterns that keep alcohol in place and work on creating a different way forward.
My structured 28-Day Alcohol-Free Coaching Programme includes four one-to-one sessions and is available online and face-to-face.
If Sober October becomes the beginning of something bigger for you, I can help.
EXPLORE ALCOHOL-FREE COACHING
BOOK A FREE 15-MINUTE DISCOVERY CALL
If your coaching page already handles that journey, it can go to the coaching page rather than requiring another URL.
That gives somebody who is already thinking, “Actually, I want help with this,” a direct next action. That’s exactly where we should be slightly more commercial. They’ve consumed a substantial amount of free help by then; you’ve earned the right to ask.
Discovery Call
ONE MORE THING
Before you begin, take a moment and picture yourself on 31 October.
You’ve completed Sober October.
What do you look like? How are you sleeping? What is your energy like? What does your skin look like? Have your clothes changed? How are your mornings? What are you thinking differently about? How proud do you feel?
And what have you learned about yourself that you couldn’t possibly know on Day One?
Make that picture clear.
It gives you something to move towards.
But you don’t need to become that person today.
Today, you only have to do today.
ABOUT NIGEL JONES
Nigel Jones is the author and narrator of the best-selling Quit Lit book Walking Back to Happiness – The Secret to Alcohol-Free Living & Well-Being.
He stopped drinking on 8 December 2020 after a 35-year relationship with alcohol. His first year alcohol-free became the basis of Walking Back to Happiness, which explores habits, beliefs, cravings, willpower, mindfulness, exercise, purpose and what can happen when alcohol stops playing such an important part in life.
Nigel is a Community Champion for Alcohol Change UK and works as a coach and hypnotherapist through 9KM BY 9AM.
The unabridged audiobook of Walking Back to Happiness is available on Audible, Spotify and major audiobook retail and library platforms.
IMPORTANT
If you think you may be physically dependent on alcohol, suddenly stopping can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or an appropriate alcohol service for advice about reducing or stopping safely.
© Copyright Nigel Jones 2022-2026. The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved.
