I found it much easier to completely eliminate alcohol than to reduce my consumption. You no longer have to think about it, and you're no longer tempted by 'just one more drink' (which becomes even more tempting after a couple of drinks).

I didn't mean to reduce as a goal, but to not hurt yourself emotionally if you ever skip a beat as long as its tiny.

If you finally drink once after a month of being sober, you're at 1 per month vs 30 per month, that's not zero but it's good. So next month you try to beat that, or stay at one drink per month. And in three monthes try to get a zero.

Everyone is different. I also prefer just stop, but not everyone has will power to do so.

In the case of an alcohol addiction, decrease of consumption is almost a guarantee to relapse.

While zero consumption is probably the best, the belief that it's all or nothing seems to be associated with severity of relapse/bingeing after a failure of self-control http://persweb.wabash.edu/facstaff/hortonr/articles%20for%20...