Originally Posted by
thomas11 
All I can tell you is that I often tell people that giving 100% is the best you can do, and that will take you far. I am giving about as close to 100% as I can, and its uncomfortable to me to be told "it isn't good enough". I understand it, but it is an adjustment in thinking.
not to pile on... So you are admitting you are not doing 'the best you can do'.
What I am about to say is not entirely directed at you 'Thomas'.
I read a post this morning from someone who made it 6 days and tossed an excuse 'out there'. I had to log off because I got angry about how this person treated it and I didn't want to call bullsttt! at the time. It was, but I needed to collect myself due to my own anger at someone else who it seemed to me to just shrug it off.
I get annoyed when I hear of folks who "slip" after a week or a month. Or the folks who throw around the word "relapse" after a short amount of time 'sober'.
Sure it is semantics, but I don't consider drinking again after a month as a relapse. I consider it still caught in the addiction mind set.
Until someone has serious sober time and drinks again - a relapse - they are still trying to figure out what to do.
To me, a 'slip' in the 'beginning' is nothing more than not being fully committed (giving 100%) to sobriety. When it is termed a 'slip' in a lighthearted manner anyway.
Closing the door, not leaving it 'cracked open' is the only way ensure something doesn't 'slip' through that door.
Putting a screen in the window with a hole in it will not keep the insects from entering. If you want to keep the insects out, fix the hole or get a new screen. You need a 100% barrier for it to work.
Same goes for the decision to get and stay sober.
You are either 100% or you are not. To quote a 'program', 'half measures availed us nothing...' or something like that.
Regardless of how anyone approaches their 'journey', 'program', 'plan' and commitment to sobriety, until you are 100% > all in < you are not going to succeed.
You have to want it. More than anything else.