I bank the wins

It can be easy to forget what we’re achieving.  Easy to forget how hard it was at the beginning.  Easy to move through life without recognising the wins.  We can be distracted from really noticing them and acknowledging our own progress.  That’s why banking the wins is so important.  I have a win jar (a conceptual one, although am beginning to wish I had a real one) where I capture my wins.  The first Christmas party.  The first wedding.  The difficult meeting.  Sitting on my own after putting the children to bed.  Every moment that previously I would have drunk on.  This, I did ‘this’ sober.  “This’ happened and I didn’t drink at it.  When I start capturing them all in my jar I can see what I would lose if I drank again - all of them, whatever they are, especially the small ones.  I get to acknowledge the difficulty, the struggle.  More importantly, I get to acknowledge my progress.  It validates what I have chosen to do.  It lets me know that this is the right choice, sobriety is the right choice.

Everything I have today is because I am sober.