Originally Posted by
BodhiTree 
I'm on Day 9 today and so far things have been very positive for me. I feel so much better in the morning (and in the afternoon, evening and night). I am enjoying being clear, remembering what happened during my evenings, choosing when to go to bed rather than fall asleep (okay...passing out) on the couch, and not waking up to reading cringe-inducing facebook updates that I posted while on my 4th or 5th gin and tonic. And the lack of hangover is just unspeakably great.
Well, fear is certainly a great motivator and I won't minimize it or the value of remembering how bad it was. I kept a journal at the end of my drinking and in early sobriety, and when I got to thinking "oh, it wasn't that bad" I'd pull it out and read the entries when I was still drinking. That took care of that.
But what I really want to say to you is that you may find value in focusing on the positive aspects of sobriety rather than on fear. You did a great job of expressing those positives--the clarity, the absence of shame, the lack of hangovers, etc.--and they are very real. VERY. And there is nothing at all wrong with deriving motivation from wanting to keep those wonderful things in your life.
More than once in early sobriety I got through a rough night not by scaring myself with memories of my sordid past but by knowing how good I would feel the next day when I woke up sober.
OTT