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2014 Challenge

 
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 Anonymous
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Checking in. X

 
Posted : 8th November 2014 5:59 pm
 Anonymous
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Checking in for the week. Been mad busy recently so haven't been on the forum much. Great to see some people returning to the challenge and sone new members still coming. Don't know about anyone else but this challenge was a great help to me when joined back in march kept me on straight and narrow in the early days when had crazy urges. Thankfully they have now disappeared but always keep my guard up

 
Posted : 8th November 2014 10:55 pm
 Anonymous
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Hi guys

checking in for the week - big milestone for me to hit 100 days this week and also paid back all my debts which is a fantastic feeling!

Mr B I agree totally with the mentality aspect of fighting this illness, I've seen it happen to people in GA who don't have the right mentality to tackle this. I never want to gamble again so I will keep that mentality with me if the day ever comes that I get a thought of gambling.

Hope everyone one has a good week.

 
Posted : 8th November 2014 11:08 pm
 Anonymous
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Checking in, quite late this week but been very busy. New site seems a bit awkward to get round but sure will get used to it. Start of week things were tough and if blocks weren't in place I think I'dve slipped up but those thoughts have gone and had a really good couple of days.

 
Posted : 8th November 2014 11:20 pm
 Anonymous
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Checking in, gamble free for 3 days - still got my £20 in my pocket (spent £5 on Petrol) long may this continue!

 
Posted : 8th November 2014 11:56 pm
 Anonymous
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Checking in on day 234. 😉

 
Posted : 9th November 2014 10:21 am
 Anonymous
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Topic starter
 
Good morning soldiers!
The weeks are flying by……….8 more check-ins required to take everyone into 2015!! It looks as if everyone is getting to grips with the website and our team is more or less in tact following the migration a week or so ago. I posted during the week that the site was “ripping my knitting” and very quickly Forum Admin asked me the question about feedback. An ask for this week would be for each of you, where relevant, to post your feedback on the new site along with your check in. I’ll consolidate the feedback and then email Admin with our collective views. There’s no doubt that there’s improvement on the new look site, so let’s ensure that the feedback is balanced with the plusses and the minuses. I sense that it’s more the practical end user experience that’s driving some of the frustration.
This week’s update will feature the headlines, welcoming back an old friend, formally welcoming 2 new members, detailing the celebrations from the week past and one to come and of course providing the Roll of Honour and day counts – it makes for great reading this week. On top of all of that there’s the monthly update for October – our best “clean month” of the year so far. Without further ado……….
Headlines for the Week
We’ve moved back over 30 soldiers in our army again with 31 of us are marching GF into the new week. Each of us carry the biggest average days clean ever, with 168 days of freedom in our individual back packs. This is an incredible number………..and if it continues to grow, only needs an additional 14 days onto it to put the average up to 6 months! How we have grown! With ccw95 celebrating joining the Century Club yesterday, the rank has swelled to 20 members……with another joining this week! I don’t think I ever believed we’d have so many people in the group with such significant recovery lengths behind them. Since the Challenge began we’ve seen over 34 years worth of clean days and as you’ll see below, we’ve not only broken through the £600k but we’ve smashed it! It’s easily within our collective *** to hit ¾ of a million pounds saved by the end of the year!
Welcoming Back Old Friends and New Members……………
I wrote a few weeks ago about soldiers that were missing who had made a really big contribution to the group in the very early stages……….one of those people returned to base camp this week. It’s brilliant to see AdamPrice back with us and even better to know that later this week he’ll join the Century Club. Your posts earlier in the week Adam are a reminder how bad this addiction can get, but also how you can come through the other side of that and effect a big change on your life via a sustained period of recovery. Great to have you marching with us again mate.
Two new soldiers joined the army this week – I Wished has been a huge contributor to the Forum for a good number of months now and it’s not unusual to see a long list of posts on the recovery diaries that has been the result of Suzanne (I Wished) offering words of encouragement and congratulations to fellow compulsive gamblers. It’s superb to have her join us and I know our journey will be richer with her by our sides – welcome Suzanne!
Also joining is egfr – very early in recovery, but with 2 challenge posts under the belt already. We’ve had a great success rate with new members egfr in terms of early check ins – I’m sure you’ll continue this trend! There’s so much support, encouragement and advice to be taken from this group to help you on your way and be sure that we’ll be shoulder to shoulder with you in these early stages. Stick in egfr and welcome to the team!
October Monthly Update
The month of October has seen the total numbers of soldiers come and go in the Challenge reach 122 members and with 31 still currently involved it gives us a retention of just over 25%. With the “experts” telling us that only 3% of CG’s will lead a life of recovery free from gambling, we’re still over 800% better than standard statistics. Pretty good going team! We’ve just had the most successful month as a group, with 87% of checked in members having gone October without gambling it shows how much strength we have as a group. In total, the current group have gone 149 full calendar months without gambling………….with the following notable milestones reached:-
There are 5 soldiers who are still on track to be “clean in ‘14” – congratulations to Del79, duncanmac, Scambling, Mr Brightside and Happy Days! 52 days to go guys before the glass can be raised as the clock strikes 12 on New Years Eve and we can claim a full calendar year without gambling.
12 of the group now have 6 calendar months of recovery in their knapsacks – as well as the 5 guys above, Hitthefan, Baggins, lostafortune, triangle, ringerbell, delboygolf and I wished will all have celebrated their full year of being gamble free by the end of April, if not before for some of the group!
MarkieB10 celebrated his first full quarter of calendar months without gambling as at 1st November!
5 of the team celebrated completing their first full calendar month of being gamble free – congratulations to Rst.Ex-CG, AndyJ, Mo, Dot83 and Matty1658 – October was a breakthrough month for you all – hopefully the first of many!
Milestones Celebrated and to be Celebrated This Week…………
Here are the Milestones Celebrated in the week that’s just ended:-
Hitthefan broke through the 40 week barrier – the analogy of a pregnancy is fitting HTF – 40 weeks of hard work and hopefully something wonderful has happened in your life that will still be hard work in the future but incredibly rewarding!
Pinky333 reached the 20 week mark and another step closer to the half year – you’ll have done this by Christmas Pinky – awesome going!! Keep it up soldier!
ccw95 became our newest member of the Century Club yesterday and is proof as to how sustained abstinence can impact massively on finances – congratulations on ridding yourself of your gambling related debt soldier!
Mile End celebrates exactly a quarter of year GF today! Living proof that despite a few blips in the early stages, sustained recovery is possible. A lot of hard work ME, but you’re getting there – congratulations!!
Rst.Ex-CG, Mo, Dot83 and AndyJ have all marched past the half century during this week. That’s you guys well into the “maintain” period – the risk of complacency can set in, the sometimes boring phase……….this is when the guard really needs to be up soldiers! Superb going – and look forward to the spate of milestones that every one of you can reach prior to the New Year – all of you will be Century Club members if you stay strong and keep going – now that’s a target!!
Here are the Milestones to be Celebrated in the Coming Week:-
Although not checked in this week, it would be remiss not to mention a massive milestone that one of the Challenge soldiers will celebrate tomorrow – Richy244 will hit 365 days and be a year free from gambling. Would be great to see a check in Richy so that we can join in the celebration with you!
I Wished (200 days), Elfie17 (20 weeks), AdamPrice (Century Club!) and Matty1658 (50 days) will all have a big day at some point during the week – congratualtions everyone!
The Roll of Honour
Here is the Roll of Honour for the Challenge for this week, along with the clean days everyone is carrying:-
Name Clean Days
Happy Days 332
lostafortune 247
Mr Brightside 336
Del79 454
duncanmac 374
Rst.Ex-CG 55
Hitthefan 281
Baggins 252
triangle 241
ringerbell 241
Scambling 337
delboygolf 234
AdamPrice 98
Gladsdad 29
Pinky333 146
Mo 52
John64 163
Mileend 91
Wolf57 157
Elfie17 139
SuzyLemon 150
markieb10 118
mjc1974 166
ccw95 101
Dot83 51
mba 21
AndyJ 54
Matty1658 49
mrt1969 38
I wished 195
egfr 4
Drum roll………total days free of gambling since the Challenge began……….
12437 Days = £0.62185 million in our pockets………………..£0 in the bookies!!!
So that brings this week’s update to an end…………..well, nearly. Final few words………..
There are some people in life that have a really big impact on you. They can be big characters, big spirits or just connect with you in a way that not many can. This week bornagain chose to leave the Challenge after a few slips and a really difficult few months. Phil was one of the founder members of the Challenge, has been an amazing deputy to me when I’ve not been able to do the updates and I would consider him to be one of the really important factors in my own recovery. I would also consider him a friend. It’s with great sadness that we say farewell to Phil, but with great hope that he will return in the coming weeks with renewed energy and a start to a new and successful recovery journey. Always here for you Phil.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful, gamble free week and that your check ins are full of positivity and hope for your future!
Mr Brightside
 
Posted : 9th November 2014 10:44 am
 Anonymous
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Topic starter
 

The "rules" for the Challenge are on the very first post of this thread for anyone interested in joining.

Here are the current soldiers who we are looking for check in's for week commencing 10th November:-

Name Checked in?
Happy Days
lostafortune
Mr Brightside
Del79
duncanmac
Rst.Ex-CG Yes!!
Hitthefan
Baggins
triangle Yes!!
ringerbell
Scambling
delboygolf Yes!!
AdamPrice
Gladsdad
Pinky333
Mo
John64
Mileend
Wolf57 Yes!!
Elfie17
SuzyLemon Yes!!
markieb10
mjc1974
ccw95
Dot83
mba
AndyJ Yes!!
Matty1658
mrt1969
I wished

egfr

The missing soldiers for last week are:-

Chirst21
richy 244
StoneRoses
Jelle - checked in!!!
CannaeWin
 
Posted : 9th November 2014 10:47 am
 Anonymous
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Hi All, Firstly I would like to apologise for disappearing off the thread, I found it quite difficult to stop thinking about gambling while using the site as I was spending quite a lot of time reading about it! Anyway I just want you all to know that I appreciate all the help you guys gave me in the early stages and everything you all said (especially Mr B) stuck with me to this day.

I am pleased to say that I am 11 months-give or take a day- gamble free. I now dont think about gambling much at all and have so many other things in my life that have become much more important to me. When I read my old posts I feel desperately sorry for who I was back then but also very proud of where I am right now. Quite a few of my family say to me that I am in control now so there is no need to be so strict with myself but they dont know what I will always know and that it only takes 1 small gamble to put me back down that road.

So thank you all so much for all the advice and help you gave me last year and well done to those of you who will make it to a year in a few short weeks!

Linda xxxxx

P.S I got married on 27th September and all is going well! Now looking forward to my year milestone on the 11th December when I will treat myself to something very very nice!!!!

 
Posted : 9th November 2014 11:42 am
 Anonymous
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New to this site yesterday and only on day 2 - feeling strong about this and would love to join in the challenge.

 
Posted : 9th November 2014 11:45 am
 Anonymous
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Checking In - Day 150

Suzy

 
Posted : 9th November 2014 2:07 pm
 Anonymous
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Checking in and will be Day 164 on Sat PM for me! Great post Mr B, as ever, and great stats - I am sure the end of year ones will be staggering and will be a great inspiration for all those wishing to undertake a 2015 challange [me included].

Funnily enough I look at this site at least 2 or 3 times a week, and it doesn't make me think of gambling or my gambling failures of the past, but I find it only encourages me to continue to remain gamble free!

So - marching on into mid Nov, abstaining one day at a time by choice.

Hope everyone is managing to cope and marching strong too.

feedback - whilst the site is prettier, I would like the feature returned which allows you to go to a specific page so we can see the posts of that week and of course, the weekly update; I feel there are too many posts to a page to make it easy to go to read the new ones. Also, to help editors, being able to edit the first post pointing to the update and date etc ~ with perhapss a link to that page would be usful? Apart from that, I am sure it just takes some geting used to. Hope that helps Mr B.

Good luck everyone with the week ahead, Kind regards, Cliff

 
Posted : 9th November 2014 4:34 pm
 Anonymous
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Hi all,

Forgot to check in this week, been very busy at work due to a deadline. Week before the website was offline because of the upgrade of the new good looking interface! Fact is, been doing pretty good last two weeks. Hope you guys are too! Till next week!

 
Posted : 9th November 2014 4:41 pm
 Rst2019
(@rst2019)
Posts: 512
 

Checking in 56 days clean. Mr B I think your spot on saying that after 50 days you reach the boring stage, hoping to keep busy and put any thoughts to one side.

 
Posted : 9th November 2014 6:11 pm
AndyJ
 AndyJ
(@andyj)
Posts: 58
 

Hi all fellow soldiers,

Checking on day 54 still gf. Good week again, being kept busy and another week further away from my demons!

Mixed emotions this week from the group. Great to have all the new members join us but really sad to hear people leave us in battle. Bornagain, your prescence will most certainly be missed. Take care in whatever you wish to strive for. Hope to see you back soon, you'll be missed!

Apart from that, short post this week, battle on soldiers! 🙂

Andy

 
Posted : 9th November 2014 10:56 pm
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