Powerfully Sober with Annie McDonnell

My guest this week is Annie McDonnell - an Australian executive with a difficult start in life followed by a 20 years career in the wine industry.  These days she's thriving in her alcohol free life and inspiring others as a Sober Coach.

In this episode:-

Annie’s father had a drinking problem and her parents had a difficult marriage – in fact her mother left the home when Annie has just 14
Unsurprisingly Annie felt angry and abandoned and it was about this time that she discovered that alcohol which became her best friend
Unsure of her career ambitions Annie chose random subjects to study at university – one of them being Viniculture which she loved
She went on to join Australia's burgeoning wine industry and loved her job
Of course she got to hang out with her best friend alcohol every day and a tasting at a 9am sales meeting was not unusual!
Annie enjoyed this lifestyle throughout her 20’s and 30’s but in her 40’s she crashed and burned
She’d known that she had a problem with alcohol for years but just couldn’t imagine life without alcohol
I was the same and we agreed that it was the fear of life without our best friend alcohol that keeps us trapped
I sometimes wish I had a time machine that I could put some of our new members in – those people who are struggling – scoring a few alcohol free days and then giving in to a craving..
In early sobriety its impossible to imagine just how different your life will be if you make this change
Annie came up with a great analogy about rocks – she said that when you are drinking it feels like you are carrying a backpack of rocks and when you stop you put it down….and life feels so much better, so much lighter you marvel at how wrong you were to fear alcohol free living
It does take a few months of hard work but then you are free and your life starts to evolve in the most extraordinary ways so people need to have faith just like my favourite MLK quote
Take the first step on the staircase even if you cant see the top – if you're ready to take that first step just go to tribesober.com and hit “join our tribe” and we’ll take care of the rest!
Annie described her “not this” moment which came in her mid forties as a result of severe anxiety which had left her unable to drive, unable to see people or even to lift a spoon to eat some soup..
"Not this" moments come to us when we are at rock bottom, we know we just can’t do this anymore
Annie signed up for a 100 day challenge and felt great relief that she didn’t have to think about her drinking for 100 days
That’s a great attitude to go into a challenge with – we have our annual 66 day challenge starting on 1st September so if you’d like to join that just go to the homepage of tribesober.com
Annie and I talked about the power that we begin to feel as we become more aligned with who we really are in sobriety – we take control and no longer feel that things are just “happening” to us
Like many of us who have been sober for a few years Annie felt pulled towards helping others so she trained as a Sobriety Coach and we talked about the Sacred Walk experience that she offers
You can find Annie at her website powerfullysober.com, on LinkendIn of via email  [email protected]

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