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If-then plans

Happier Holidays with Club Soda Your Happier Holidays wishes If-then plans

Picture this scene. A friend is over at yours, and says they need a breath of fresh air and are going to the shop. They ask you if you’d like them to get you anything.

“Ooh, yes please”, you reply, “can you get me an iced coffee?”

“Sure”, they say, “and if they haven’t got iced coffee?”

“Then I’d like a cola, please,” you reply.

Chances are you use if-then plans like this all the time, often with barely a thought. What we’re going to do here is to start making our if-then plans intentional so we’re not caught out later on by having to make a decision on the go.

As you plan each day and your holiday events, you may notice some obstacles in the road ahead. If-then planning can help you deal with them by preparing you in advance so you can avoid unwanted drinking. If-then planning focuses on what is most likely to go wrong, so you can figure out how to tackle the problem.

As we have seen above, if-then plan looks like this:

  • “If [this] happens, then I will do [that].”

Whatever [this] and [that] are, if-then planning helps you act with intention. It’s an antidote to wishful thinking. You do not imagine problems won’t happen, keeping your fingers crossed and hoping for the best. Instead, you accept the potential difficulties as a reality and face your problems head-on. That way, whatever happens, you’ll be better prepared, so you don’t find yourself reaching for a drink to cope.

If-then planning also creates a chance to experiment. The problem might be predictable, but you can do almost anything in response to it. You don’t have to fall into the same patterns of behaviour.

The best if-then plans are really specific, for example:

  • If the kids annoy me, I will call a friend for a chat.
  • If my partner offers me a drink, I will ask for something alcohol-free.
  • If I’m feeling stressed at the end of the day, I will close my eyes for five minutes and focus on my breathing.
  • If I’m not enjoying myself, I will do something else.

It can really help to write out your if-then plan down. Then, as you approach the situation when you’re going to need it, you can take it out or refer to it and remind yourself of your plan. And, of course, once you’ve got to the other side and you’ve dealt with the problem, remember to congratulate yourself!

We will use this same technique in planning our holiday events and occasions. By working out our best-case scenarios for each of them, and the kinds of things that might get in the way of achieving our best cases, if then statements give us plans to put into action should the situation(s) arise. And because we’ve planned, we’re less likely to get caught out and more likely to stick to our drinking goals.

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