2014 Challenge

DAY 6-CHECK. NO GAMBLING SINCE LAST SUNDAY. WELL DONE ME.

well done no problem! keep fighting the good fight! xx linda

Just completed the Christmas Challenge and am now 19 weeks free as of today, so here I am signing up to this 2014 challenge hoping to keep myself motivated. Good luck to all. xx

checking in Day 53 🙂

Had one day off in 8 days and that was the day I struggled, apart from that just worked and slept. Felt elated on day 50. I also nominate you Mr Brightside, without your commitment and motivation to this thread it is highly possible I would have relapsed. I always think of this thread when I have urges and the thought of letting yourself and others who have joined down has had an impact in my decision not to gamble. I'm sure everyone else on here would agree. x

Hi checking in Day 36 for me, bit of a wobble this week but no bets. Hope others are doing well.

Checking in on Day 57 and remaining bet free. Well done to all involved and may it long continue.

Fantastic effort from Mr Brightside for your continued effort each week in producing the information.

P.S. I hope Forest get beat on Wed when we entertain you at Deepdale for the replay.... Lol

Mike

Day 10 gonna be on mr Bs list again yes!!

I am totally inspired by reading this thread . It is a challenge it is hard, sometimes harder than other times , but the rewards are so much greater than any reward from a relapse might bring. The thread gives a sense of team work, especially the little pats on the back the hero of the week, and the recognition to our selves that hey! I CAN do this!

Well here to the end of week and the start of the next, ready to roll! Thanks mr B x

Morning everyone....

Checking in Day 35 & NO Gambling 🙂

I haven't posted at all this week, not been feeling the best, choked with the cold, working lots of hours & coming home to exhausted to do anything but I'm still here Mr B and thankfully still resisting those urges....

I agree with the others that have said Mr B should be our hero of the week, although I've not been posting, I visit here everyday and gain so much strength and determination, you really have no idea how much it helps and I thank each & every one of you.

I cannot win because I cannot stop...no point in starting then 🙂

Stay strong everyone & take care.

M x

Afternoon everyone,

This is the 5 hour warning!! We are missing 3 soldiers this week - el producto, Adam_Price and lec101 (Lou).........if these guys check in then we WILL be over 1000 days and will have had our most successful week ever as a group!! Encourage them people!!

I'm buzzing for tonight's update - lots and lots of good news in there, milestone awards, heroes awards (already decided.......and it's a bit different), a one off award for this week, a new section called "Dates for the Diary", the roll of honour and a challenge for everyone on the thread to have thought about something and done it before next Sunday's update......all will be revealed 🙂

*ashamed* - you don't know how happy I was and still am to see your check in!!

We've got two new members.......a bumper check in with "redeemed" - welcome fella!!

Oh, and before I forget, a yellow card for Mike (co-ord 45) for cheek!! Yoooou Reds!! Lol!!

Catch you all later!!

Mr Brightside - checking in on Day 56, today is a good day!

DAY 7-CHECK. One week free of gambling, it has been very tough so far, i dont see me ever playing roulette again which is good. Hope i can resist all other gambling too.

Hi everyone, checking 11 days gamble free, has been a very tough weekend to be honest, some very strong urges. But I have managed to resist and feel a lot better for it.

Just going to have a nice meal and a couple of drinks now, looking forward to the weekly update Mr B.

Adam

Good evening fellow soldiers!

So here we are on the first Sunday of February and it’s a bumper update tonight! Sad maybe, but I’ve not been as excited YET to write the update as I am this evening - there is so much to celebrate as a group. I’d advise you to stop reading now, go get yourself a cuppa or a glass of wine and settle down to read through the various sections!! In all seriousness, it is a long update, but hopefully one that you will read and enjoy, take something from, grow in confidence in our group and when you put your head on your pillow tonight will help you feel part of something special.

Here’s the headlines then - we have got 18 active members, one more than last week, with the best retention rate of members from last week carrying into this week that we’ve ever had - 88% of members from last week have carried on abstaining week on week - that laughs in the face of the statistic that only 3% of compulsive gamblers will stop gambling for good. We are strong together! Our average numbers of days free from gambling has increased to more than 50 days per person! Even more good news is that our new soldiers from last week have both come through this week clean - strange and no problem - huge kudos to you guys and we doff our caps to you!! That’s the first time a full complement of new members have stayed with the thread……….that’s the benchmark now for our new colleagues this week……..

….so we welcome 2 new members this week - wading in with a huge number of days clean is “redeemed” - fresh from the Christmas Challenge and bringing lots of experience and advice. Delighted to have you with us mate and we have a dependency on you keep going now to keep out overall number of days up! Also joining us is “unruinurself” - at the beginning of the journey and no doubt in need of support and motivation from the rest of us……keep strong and want to win for yourself but also your new team mates. Don’t forget that you both need to check in once per week before 8pm on a Sunday!

Onto this weeks awards and we’ll start with the Significant Milestones - lots of them this week!

No Maybe - our hero of the week last week has hit another milestone this week. Well done Julie on moving into 3 figures of clean days - 100 days free from gambling is truly outstanding - that’s’ what the majority of us are aiming to hit next, so you need to show us the way as to what happens beyond that!

2012theyear - my good fellow Glaswegian buddy has just moved into double figures of weeks clean - 10 weeks free!! Congratulations Craig - I think we’ll adopt you as one of our ‘weigy own now (if you’re not already - lol!!)!!

Hardtimes - Linda, congratulations on your 50 days on Wednesday!

Lec101 - Lou, despite not checking in this week (get your finger out buddy!), I’m not going to let the week go by without recognising your milestone - 50 days clean on Tuesday!

Babybluesky - another Wednesday 50 day milestone - sounds like a tough week for you girl, but you’re doing amazing - I didn’t realise that you and Linda are on exactly the same number of days - looks as if that could make a brilliant buddy pairing?

Mr Brightside - Monday was my big 50 day milestone - can’t tell you how much I appreciated all the diary posts and encouragement!

Group Milestones - we have 13 active members (14 if my buddy Lou gets her finger out!) who are “clean for ‘14”……..within that, 9 of us have just come through our first full clean calendar month - January with no monies lost or staked gambling. Congratulations to - The_Rock, hardtimes, babybluesky, born again, co-ord 45, ashamed, lost a fortune, AmandaG and me!! We have 4 colleagues who have gone more than 1 full month and are our inspiration - 2012theyear has now gone 2 full calendar months, No Maybe has gone 3 full calendar months, Redeemed has pushed through 4 months and the daddy of the group, Delboy79 has gone 5 full calendar months.

January’s backside kicked by 13 of us, February’s backside will be feeling sore from the toes of all of us!

Milestone Dates for the diary for this week -

Here are some big days up and coming for you to note and head onto people’s recovery diaries with a word of support and congratulations:-

Monday 3rd Feb - The_Rock will move onto 64 days, his second best ever gamble free period of time. We all need to give him lots of encouragement this week folks - WHEN he gets to next Sunday and 70 days clean, that will be his longest ever period without gambling……

Wednesday 5th Feb - Bornagain (Phil) will reach 50 days clean - big day big Philla!

Sunday 9th Feb - The_Rock will reach 10 weeks free and beat his best ever clean tally!

Now, onto the Heroes of the Week Awards………

I’m going to make a dual award this week, both for exactly the same reasons…….based on inspiration, motivation, dedication and as a way of saying thank you to them for the consistent way they post on all of our diaries and dedicate time to a wide range of forums on this site……..controversially perhaps, but one of them isn’t a member of the Challenge, but is my “go to guy” for words of wisdom……..so…………here we go………

duncanmac - I know you’ll be reading this fella! You are truly amazing sir - the amount of posts you have made on Challenge members diaries and those of others is incredible. You are a massive, massive support to us and I think we could possibly have you to thank for keeping a number of us going in our recovery. You are a Yoda on this site and we thank you.

hardtimes - Linda - I tried to count how many posts you’ve made this week alone, but just gave up! 3 kids, your own challenges to deal with, a tough week, but you still keep going. You are a hero and if anyone needs a reason to believe that they need to search your name as an author and look at the encouragement you give others. Despite what you may think, I want you to hear that I think, we think, that you are incredibly selfless and can’t thank you enough for the hours you put into your own and others recoveries.

Congratulations to our Heroes of the week - duncanmac and hardtimes!

Unsung Heroes of the Week……….

This thread and a lot of diaries sight each other and ourselves. We congratulate each other, we sympathise with each other, we celebrate with each other. We pick each other up after a fall and we help dust each other down after a tough day or week. But behind nearly every one of us is someone or people who maybe don’t quite understand our challenges, who will get frustrated by our protestations, moods, anguish or insomnia. They have borne the brunt of our comas, they have suffered at the hands of our pushing them away, they could be hurt by our tongues, our behaviours or our isolation and they may have to be sacrificing financially because of us. However, I want each and every one of them to know that they are playing such a significant part in our recovery, that we love them with all of our hearts and that we thank God every day that they are in our lives.

It’s sore for me to have written some of this and I hope you all appreciate that I have written this with positive intent - it is with absolute thanks that I offer the Unsung Heroes of the week award to our friends, partners, parents and families - we could not do this without you. I hope that you allow them to read this so they realise that while we still feel guilt at what we’ve done, we want to do this for ourselves, for each other but very very much for them too……..and we will try every single day to make up to you and be better people.

Final award of the week is the “Great Leadership Award”. It’s a one off that has had me thinking for quite a bit of this week………..it’s turning a negative into a positive and certainly making me think about the differences between positive thinking and negative thinking………..

I’m giving the award for Great Leadership to The_Rock and also to No Maybe, and here’s why……..among other things, great leaders think differently, they change the mindsets of others, they create followers and they give reasons to believe. The_Rock and No Maybe have done something this week that I would challenge a number of you to think about doing and urge you to do by next Sunday. This time last week, they were “Rock_Bottom” and “maybe”. What negative connotations those names have! I then look at some of the other member names - we look at these and think these things every time we come onto the forum. Think about it - examples are hardtimes, ashamed, lostafortune…….but they are just a few on the forum……..why are you guys, having demonstrated that you are none of these things, not changing your names to a much more positive slant………greattimesahead, proud, savingafortune! Take the lead from this week’s Great Leaders and at least think about it - there’s a heck of a lot in a name!!

Congratulations to our Great Leaders!!

Onto the Roll of Honour for this Week………

Here is the updated details for the “family”……….

Name / Days Free from Gambling

The_Rock 63

Hardtimes 54

babybluesky 54

Bornagain 47

Co-ord 45 57

AdamPrice 11

2012theyear 71

ashamed 35

lostafortune 36

No Maybe 102

Mr Brightside 56

rst18 8

Delboy79 174

AmandaG 36

NoProblem 7

Strange 10

Redeemed 134

unruinurself 4

So, drum roll………total days free of gambling is……….a best ever for the team……..

959 Days = £95,900 in our pockets………………..£0 in the bookies!!!

That means that we have increased our days clean by exactly 33% this week versus last - now that is a reason to celebrate!!!

Here are the missing soldiers for this week………

el producto

lec101

Get yourself checked in next week folks - and get a reminder in your phone at some point in the week to pop on and check in once a week!

So you’ll be glad to read that you’ve got to the end of the update for this week!! Congratulations if you’ve got this far without falling asleep! It won’t be this long again I wouldn’t imagine, but if it is then it must be good news!

I’ll close with our collective challenge for the week (and don’t forget the username challenge too!) - we hit 88% member retention this week, there’s 18 of us active this week, it would be outstanding if we could hit 94% next Sunday. That would be 17 out of 18 - the aspiration is obviously 100%....and individually, that is in our hands.

Clean for ’14 everyone - for ourselves, for each other, for our families, for our friends - we have the momentum now to get each other through this. We are on the road, we are shoulder to shoulder, we can do this………we have plenty enough reasons to truly believe that.

Until next Sunday………..have a great, clean week everyone.

Mr Brightside

Absolutely EPIC Mr B (aka stato) so proud to be part of this challenge. 😉

well Mr B what a great post and I thank you and the group from the bottom of my heart for my award - it really was the pick up I needed this week. I am so proud to be part of this amazing group of people and will always help others where I can. My unsung hero of the week goes out to you Mr B as the work you do for us on this challenge inspiring! Thank you.

So lets roll on for another week!

Linda x

P.S. I did say on my diary that I will change my name to goodtimes once I get to new years eve and thats a promise!

Awesome update Mr. B and thanks for the recognition. Day 63 for me. Roll on next sunday when I will be in unchartered territory!! Doing great and thinking of gambling less and less. Congrats to everyone who has passed a milestone this week.

"what's in a name" as someone famously pondered! Well quite a lot actually. Actually there is no rock bottom, because every time I was sure I was there I just keep creating new found lows and I'm sure had I continued I would have sunk to new depths. The Rock for me embodies strength, solidity and a determination to succeed. I feel it has given me a new lease of life!