steve-in-kville

I have a three day weekend coming up and they were always big triggers for me. Sorta like, "lets see how many fifths we can kill before Sunday night!"

I've been going pretty hardcore in the garden and flower beds the past week or so and I have a pretty big list of things that need done. So I'll be kept busy, for sure!

Another challenge happened last weekend at a family gathering: people kept trying to get close to me to see if I smelled of bourbon. Or they tried to engage me in conversation to see if I slurred. Guess that was more of an amusement/annoyance than anything.

Your next.

Gottalife

My biggest daily challenge has boiled down to a simple choice between two options related to whatever life sends my way. Do I accept it, or can I change it.?

Drinking is not part of the picture.

Ken33xx

There it is.

Ken33xx

Biggest challenge? Living life on life's terms.

I've got a lot going on these days and it's not easy dealing with some issues long distance.

aasharon90

I have been going hardcore in my gardens
too. There never seems to be enough dirt
to build up my forever sinking gardens into
the abyss.

We've made several trips already to our
local Home depot for bags of top soil loading
up, bringing them home, then bag by bag
I haul them to their dumping spot then to
find out, hey I need more.

10 bags at a time just aint gettin'r done.

I need a dump trunk to do the trick. lol

Perfection is my pet peeve. I want
everything in its place so perfect and
neat without all the hard work, which
is definitely impossible.

However, a drink of toxic poison will
never make all my hard worth appreciating
or make get done with a snap of a finger.

Incorporating a continuous recovery
program in my everyday life has helped
me with acceptance of people, places
and things and living life on life's terms.

It takes work to achieve many of
my recovery gifts just like it does for
my garden of paradise I am grateful
for today.

STDragon

I had to think about this. Staying sober has not been much of a challange any more. Oh I still have occasional thoughts, but I'm vigilant. I have to gree with Gottalifes's comment. Do I accept it, or can I change it.?

I find I'm becoming more outspoken and standing up for myself. My challange in that is not pushing too hard. Suprizingly, as close to "senoir-hood" as I am, fine tuning this skill is still relatively new to me.

August252015

I don't consider things a challenge to my physical sobriety, but I prioritize my emotional sobriety above all. From that, comes the physical- and comes the evenness of mind, heart, etc.

Within the last week, I have had THREE childhood friends reach out to me about their drinking. With one- long distance- we have begun a temporary sponsor-sponsee relationship as she gets started (now a week sober) in an AA program. With another, she is going to her first mtg (at my home group) tomorrow. The third just reached out to me last night. Also, someone in another state reached me through the restaurant industry recovery group about her daughter moving to Atlanta; she and I have begun working together, including finding her a job in a restaurant with good support.

All that is to say that this is a passel of blessings I have been building a program in part to prepare for- and it is a privilege and a LOT, if you will, to serve others. So, I share all this to say that this is not a challenge to my sobriety but a reminder that I need to stay extra close to MY program, meetings, and such, as I go into this phase of my recovery.

IMO, each day can be an opportunity or a challenge- less of that former depending on our mindset.

Grungehead

My biggest challenge in sobriety today is rediscovering my golf swing.

I haven't played in over 7 years since my 2nd open heart surgery in February of 2011. Part of that is due to the fact that I used to play at a very high level (was an asst professional for several years), and after having my sternum cracked open for the 2nd time I lost a lot of range of motion in that area (not good for golf). I've decided to give golf another go (been to the driving range 3 times in the last week) but with lowered expectations on results. My main goal is to get out more and get some fresh air and exercise.

I honestly don't feel like there are any major challenges concerning my sobriety, just commitments I make every day when I wake up...trust God, clean house and help others when the opportunity presents itself. But I've built that into my life for awhile now so I don't see it as a challenge but a natural part of my life. The golf swing however is not feeling so natural after a 7 year layoff and really stiff upper body. But after waking up every day for the last couple years of my drinking facing the challenge of do I drink today or do I end it all, I can't complain about the challenges I face today.

MyLittleHorsie

Fear of becoming complacent.

Life for me has evened out beautifully, things are calm, family is doing as well as it can, we are healing. The house, I pushed that through with a 5 week closing, because we were going through so much personal turmoil. My rationale was, I am going to be doing 90% of the work anyways, let's get it done.

I worry about becoming complacent. I worry, we moved to the lake, with the lake mentality, with the seasonal cottagers, who are probably just going to love when I spread manure LOL but there is that, eternal summer, chill and relax vibe. My neighbour talks a lot about beer, I am surrounded by a lot of drinkers, horse people drink quite a bit, now the lake life. I feel like I need to work a little harder now on myself and my sobriety. Occasionally I hear the whispering of, wasn't it fun when... then I remember the morning and days after - they sucked!

FloridaLove

I’m with you on the long weekend Steve! I sometimes get Fridays and Mondays off and that’s the case this weekend. Most people would love that but for me it feels like such a challenge because I would have started drinking on Fri and went through till sun and spent all of mon trying to recover before work.

My plan is to meet a fellow AA friend for lunch and then go to a meeting, then completely clean out the house and then hopefully spend the rest of the time with family. I know I will get to a stage where I won’t think about drinking at all over weekends....sometimes time for us alcoholics isn’t such a good thing

least

Not to sound complacent, but I find no challenges in sobriety as it's my life now. I love living sober and wouldn't trade it for a million dollars.

lessgravity

Great thread and posts, thank you.

My biggest challenge is the whole rest of my life that has nothing to do with me obliterating myself. There's a lot to take care of out there, once I started noticing.

BullDog777

I don't think about booze anymore...there aren't any more triggers. In one sense, I've recovered from the monkey on my back. I don't think of it any more than someone who could die if they get stung by a bee or eat a peanut with an allergy. It's just a matter of fact that booze will kill me if i drink....so i don't..... simple as that.

I always tell people if you want to know if you're an alcoholic, there is a test, that bar none will give you a definitive answer. Stop. Put it down and never pick it up again. If you think about it, romanticize it, or crave it...you're an alcoholic. If you in ALL HONESTY can walk away from it like you just put down a bowl of s#it, then you're good. For me, it's a bowl of s#it.

other people......
i couldn't give 2 squirts of duck pi$$ about what other people think about my choice to live sober or smelling me or whatever. That's their thing. If my side of the street is clean...I don't care. That's been a big thing for me to over come-what other people think.

My biggest challenge is me challenging myself to be better than i was yesterday, last week, last year....an not just with living sober. Being a better Dad. Or husband, Or friend. To live better being a somewhat normal f'in human being again.

I love this journey.

zjw

i woke up depressed for no real apparent reason. now i gotta try and get past it and remain productive or something. But i think im gonna just do the bare minimum and try to make it to bedtime.

bluedog97

I agree life on life’s terms. People are gonna be who they are and there’s nothing you can do about it, just deal with it the best you can. So much of life stems around being important and more should focus on how they treat people. Just speaking personally about something I’m going through.

FBL

My biggest challenge is fitting all my sober activities into 24 hours each day! Sobriety has made me rediscover the joy of living. For that, I'm eternally grateful.

Stayingsassy

Dealing with my cross addiction which is food. I downplayed this addiction a bit recently and ended up headfirst in an eating problem which felt like a full blown relapse of a different kind than alcohol, not as dark but awful...isolating, depression, unable to feel positive about anything, lethargy, dropping healthy routines. I'm a week out of it now and feeling a little stronger every day but I can still feel the effects of it and thinking about how to get more support for it moving forward.