when I was in university, I used to take a lot of alcohol and this is because I have a group of friends that love it so much. At one point I realized that I must stop the way I consume alcohol if I don’t want to end up being a junkie because most of my friends were so addicted, we probably drink alcohol every day and at first, when I tried, I told my friends that I’m trying to stop alcohol completely but a few weeks later I joined them once again simply because I thought I couldn’t resist my love and I was surrounded with people that consume a lot of alcohol but what I realize was that the problem was not the alcohol nor the kind of friends I keep, the problem is that in my head I did not stop alcohol.
The first time I tried to stop alcohol I was not fully prepared for it. That was why I kept telling people that I was trying to stop alcohol. I was able to stop alcohol completely when I realized that changing my habit alone will not change my outcome I need to change more than that. I need to change my beliefs because one of the reasons why I was planning to stop alcohol then was a change in beliefs. I realized how bad alcohol was on my liver and I started planning to change some of my beliefs because I realized that if I did not change some of those beliefs, I was not doing myself any good.
To make a habit permanent, you must become a new person must have a different identity
we struggle to maintain habits because we still believe that our old bad habits are not bad, people struggle to change their habits because they struggle to change their beliefs towards their bad habits. Some people will tell you that taking alcohol three times a week is not bad, it is when you abuse it and that can be right, but if you want to give up something you are addicted to you have to become a new person, you must change your belief for it. You must change from “I am trying to stay away from alcohol” to “I don’t take alcohol”. That is the only way you can change your habits completely. people go back to their old habits because they have not fully accepted that they are old are bad, They still make excuses for it. 
If we are still giving room for excuses, it will be very difficult for us to change our identity. When you are set that you want to change and also change your belief towards a habit, It would be easy for you to have an identity change. you have some people in your life that you know their identity, You know what they do, for example, when I was in university some people called me an alcoholic because they had seen me with alcohol several times. when you have an identity change it is easy for you to change your set of friends and also people will look at you differently, and people will understand what you stand for.
When you change your beliefs and habits, you will become a different person because you will not contradict your behavior

when we have an identity change some of those things that are attracting us before will start rejecting us. Some of our friends who are making it difficult for us to change our habits will start rejecting us because our identities do not align anymore. changing our identity makes a habit permanent if we change habits without changing our identity we can go back to the habit because it simply means some of our beliefs are still aligned with the habit but when we have an identity change it becomes easier because it simply means that we have resent the old habit and beliefs.
Thanks for your time.
