Thanks everyone - really appreciate your thoughtful (and open) responses.
I'm hearing a marathon pattern - loosely keep going to make it through the 'wall' - with the wall being an individual thing.
Makes sense - I've heard that finishing marathons are more mental than physical 'in the second half' when you're exhausted. Metaphor clearly falls apart in that there is no 'end point' with sobriety.
AMOO - very inspirational - thanks for looking it up and sharing!
Interestingly, I've only had 1 craving for DOC since I got sober, which helped in early sobriety. However, I recently realized that my addictive nature spread out to other things (food, shopping, etc) - so I still crave all kinds of things now on a daily basis & learning to work through cravings is going to be a key skill I still need to develop.
Being ok with and working through the feeling of being uncomfortable and not having a 'reward' mentality as a way of living will be a huge shift for me, but well worth the benefits, and how I'll be able to post a note like AMOOs at one year as well!
Again, thank you - for the variety of posts - really helped me to make the connection between where I am, what I need to focus on, and where I want to go.