Read the full transcript of Stephen D Wilt’s talk titled “Could An Alcohol-Free Challenge Change Your Life?” at TEDxGrandJunction 2025 conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
The Unexpected Epiphany
STEPHEN D WILT: It was almost four years ago, I found myself in a group meditation. This was new to me. I wasn’t really a meditation guy at the time. To my surprise, I was completely immersed in this experience. Totally under.
It was part of a men’s group to find the best version of ourselves. And wouldn’t you know it? When I came face to face with my best self, it was much better looking. It did have brighter eyes and clearer skin. It was in slightly better shape and just looked younger.
So here I am in this sleepy trance, standing across from this improved version of me when I hear the moderator quietly pipe in and say, “If your best self could share one thing with you, what would it be?” Imagine my excitement. What truth is he going to tell me? He put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said, “You’ll never be me until you quit drinking alcohol.” What?
The Unexpected Challenge
That’s not what I expected to hear. I mean, I was always a drinker. And to be fair, it was during the pandemic, and like many people, my drinking had accelerated to an all-time high. Never in my life did I have anyone suggest that I should. Outside looking in, I was rolling.
Career, family, physically had it all together. However, as I allow this epiphany to wash over me, I realized that I knew. I knew and I had known for a long time that alcohol was getting the best of me. Including myself, apparently. You see, the problem is when thinking about quitting alcohol, it can be daunting.
And I’m not even speaking of the physical act of stopping, which can be extremely difficult. I’m referring to our society. Don’t drink, you get the old, “Come on. What do you mean? You’re not drinking tonight?”
“Hey, everybody. Steve’s not drinking tonight.” That’s how we treat people that want to take a break. Or at least that’s how it feels. The whole ordeal is incredibly tough.
I was so worried. What am I going to tell people? How am I going to tell them? Here’s the big one. What are they going to think?
Am I going to lose my friends? I didn’t, by the way, not a single one. However, the idea of sharing this with my community, it terrified me. That’s how strong the stigma can be. It actually took me a couple of years before I took my final steps to being alcohol-free.
The Journey to Alcohol-Free Living
I joined a ninety-day alcohol-free challenge with education and a community, and it changed my life. It was during this challenge that I realized not only is it okay to say no to alcohol, it can be kind of badass. You see, the problem is that alcohol becomes a habit attached to so many of our daily activities. And I know many of you can relate to this. I mean, how many people grab some beers while sitting down to watch football or sports, or automatically take some wine to take to the book club, or order a drink with every meal off that special cocktail menu?
Maybe you pack a Yeti or even a cooler to take to your kids’ ball game. Boy, I had a bad day. I deserve a drink. I had a good day. I deserve a drink. It’s the weekend. It’s time to drink. It’s involved in so many of our work activities. It could just be everywhere we turn.
It’s so challenging, and it’s there everywhere. We don’t intentionally build these rituals. You know, when we’re 25, we don’t say, “By the time I’m 45, daily life for this guy.” That’s not what we’re doing. But it’s a habit that grows over time, like most. This one’s drastically different, because alcohol is an extremely addictive substance.
The Science Behind Alcohol Addiction
In its simplest terms, alcohol releases dopamine, which is the happy chemical, goes into our reward system of our brain, and it makes us want more. And the more we drink, the more we want, and the more we drink, and the cycle begins. It’s also modeled for us by our families at a young age. It is glamorized, socialized, normalized, and celebrated. It’s just out there.
We put it on a pedestal with pin lighting around it. The next time you’re in a nice bar, restaurant, or even grocery store, notice the almost cinematic display of bottles. So despite our love for this and the societal blessing, the CDC reminds us that excessive drinking is the leading cause of deaths in the United States today. With 178,000 casualties annually. To put that in perspective for you, that is more deaths than are caused by all illegal drugs, oh, and prescription drugs combined.
The World Health Organization shares with us that alcohol-related deaths are now up to 2.6 million a year. So that’s all the bad news. We can all just relax, take a breath. The good news is a lot of people want to take a break just like I did. A LendingTree study shares that 37% of Americans hope to drink less this year.
The Rise of Dry January
And that’s why I believe the Dry January challenge is becoming so popular. 41% of Americans hope to do Dry January this year. This is according to a Civic Science study. 41%, but only 16% succeeded. When I saw these statistics, it hit me.
Maybe there’s a way to help others on this journey to make it easier for them than it was for me. And that’s when we brought a new initiative to our workplace. That’s when we launched the workplace alcohol-free challenge. And the initial results were incredible. 26% of my firm or 400 colleagues chose to do Dry January together.
13% or 200 colleagues abstained for the entire ninety days of the challenge.