GSS 024: Thoughts & Actions

Full Episode Transcript

This is episode 24 of the Gambling Still Sucks podcast, and this will be the shortest episode yet.

Hey there, and welcome to the Gambling Still Sucks podcast. My name is Jamie. I am a compulsive gambler, and I’m also the host of this show. The last time I gambled was July 15th of 2010.

Now, as I said in the intro, this is going to be the shortest show yet. There’s a reason for that. It’s because I’ve been thinking about things and talking to other people. One thing that I don’t want to slip through the cracks is you taking action.

If you’ve listened to the last 23 episodes, hopefully, you’ve started to take some action. Hopefully, you’ve implemented some of the things we’ve talked about. You’ve found things that are working for you. You’re starting to rack up some clean time. Even if you had a relapse, maybe it was a shorter amount of time for the relapse, and then you’re back on track. You’re learning from things and growing.

I wanted to keep this one short because I just want to say: turn this off. You’re expecting to have a 15-minute, a 40-minute episode. Take that 15 to 40 minutes, and I want you to take a little bit of time and just sit and think.

Think about what’s working. Think about what isn’t working. Think about things that you might want to improve. Give yourself permission to just sit, relax, be, and think.

I think that’s one of the things that I didn’t do enough of early on—just allow myself to take stock of everything. I was trying so fast to do everything so quickly and get back on track. I’m using air quotes right now—you can’t see them—but “back on track.”

Use this time that you would normally have for an episode to think. Allow yourself to see, “Okay, what have I learned? What do I need to do?”

That’s, I guess, the second part of this. I want this to be something that allows you and leads you to take action. There are probably things—I know I’ve had things, and I continue to have things—where I’m like, “Man, I need to do that,” and I just keep kicking it down the road, keep kicking the can down the road, and waiting, procrastinating.

After you’re done thinking about it, I want this to hopefully lead to some kind of action. If it’s going to your first GA meeting, if it’s telling a friend, if it’s turning over your finances to someone, if it’s just writing an anonymous post on Reddit or somewhere on the internet—let this lead to taking action.

So, as promised, this is the shortest episode yet. Give yourself the time, think about it, and then take some action.