Dec 30, 2025
You know what you need to do. So why can't you get yourself to do it?
Because you've been waiting for motivation to show up—like it's some mysterious force that either finds you or it doesn't. But motivation isn't magic. It's dopamine. And dopamine follows rules.
In this episode, I'm breaking down exactly how dopamine works in your brain, why your current approach to drinking less is actually making it harder, and how to reverse-engineer your goals so that the actions you need to take feel rewarding instead of punishing.
This isn't about willpower. It's about becoming someone who genuinely wants to do the things that lead to drinking less—because you've trained your brain to find them pleasurable.
In this episode, I cover:
→ The two reasons dopamine fires—and how to use both to your advantage
→ The difference between intrinsic motivation (sustainable) and shame-based motivation (not)
→ Why overwhelm is the primary obstacle to change—and what it's really telling you
→ How to break one "habit" into the hundred smaller habits it actually contains
→ The delay don't deny strategy—and why it backfires if you're doing it wrong
→ Six specific examples of thoughts and behaviors that leverage dopamine around drinking
→ Why the goal isn't to drink less—it's to enjoy the upstream actions that cause you to drink less
→ How to use your body as a bullshit detector for your own thinking
→ The compound interest of small changes and how momentum builds over time
If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL.
Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you’re struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen’s NEW Q&A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air!
Find me on:
YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer
TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer
Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer
X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc