Hey there, it's Susan Peirce Thompson, and welcome to The Weekly Vlog. I said this thing in a meeting the other day, a Bright Line Eating work meeting on Zoom with team members, and everybody laughed. I said, "You've never heard that before?" They all said no.
It surprised me because I feel like I say it all the time. I'm not really sure where I got it from. Maybe I made it up, but I don't think so. I think I heard it from somebody along the way at some point. I just Googled it and nothing came up as if nobody's ever said it ever. But anyway, I say it all the time, and I wanted to share it in this week's Vlog because I think it's really helpful and powerful. Before I share what it is that I said, I want to just say something.
When people go into AA, the advice they get is do 90 meetings in 90 days. Get a sponsor, get a service commitment in one of those meetings. Start making coffee, start setting up chairs, or something like that every time that meeting happens. Get into action, get into service, get connected. The saying that I want to share with you is: "Nobody ever falls off the middle of the wagon." Nobody ever falls off the middle of the wagon. You can't fall off the middle of the wagon. Get into the middle of the wagon, don't be dangling off the edge of the wagon.
In Bright Line Eating, we have our equivalent of 90 meetings or 90 days, get a service position, et cetera. Get a sponsor, all that. It's: "Come all the way in and sit all the way down." In the Boot Camp, you can get engaged. There's so many opportunities in the Boot Camp to really show up wholeheartedly. There's opportunities to connect with other people, to be of service in the online support community by really responding to what people post in there. There are opportunities to find buddies, to get connected with a Mastermind Group, do your reflection worksheets every week, to make sure you're doing all the things. It really is possible to know that you're in the middle of the wagon when you're doing Boot Camp because you're fully engaged.
When you get into the Bright Lifers Membership, there too you can get fully engaged. We have something called the Gideon Games, which is where little teams of 10 people compete for the most aggregate Bright Line Days over 90 days. It's super fun and you get to know your team members really well. That's the whole point of it, is to make friends and get connected, then you can become a Gideon Games team leader. You can get a Guide or be a Guide, which just means it's like the equivalent of sponsorship in AA.
You can Guide someone who's struggling with relapse, who needs support transitioning to Maintenance. If you have experience with that yourself, you can Guide someone with whatever you've done in the program up until that point in your journey. You can be a Guide for someone else, to guide them through that phase of their journey equivalently.
There's so many ways to get involved and get connected. Nobody ever falls off the middle of the wagon.
I offer this to you to be used in two main ways. One is, I think it makes a great mantra. Nobody ever falls off the middle of the wagon. It's a calming, supportive, goal-directed, action-oriented mantra to remind you of what to do on a moment-to-moment basis. When cravings hit, when you're living your day and things feel stressful--nobody ever falls off the middle of the wagon. Reach out, make a connection, get involved, stay connected.
The other place I think it's really helpful is when you're at junctures in your journey. "Here I am at the end of Boot Camp. Am I going to sign up for Bright Lifers?" Or, "Here I am in Bright Lifers, am I going to do the next annual renewal?" Or, "They've put out a call for Gideon Games team leaders. Am I going to volunteer to be a team leader? Even though I've never done it before. It feels daunting. It feels scary." "Here's someone saying that they keep breaking their Lines and they need a Guide. Well, I've never been a Guide, but I've got consecutive Bright Lines. I know how to stay Bright. Apparently, apparently, I'm doing it. Could I offer to support them and help them get Bright again?" Nobody ever falls off the middle of the wagon.
Nobody ever falls off the middle of the wagon. I just love how, for every aspect of life, there's an analogy in the physical, tangible world that helps us understand it better. For a lot of us who are visual, and kinesthetic, and connected to our senses, it really helps to have metaphors that translate things into concrete terms for us. For this Week's Vlog, I offer you that saying. It's a short Vlog this week, but may you use it well and long.
Nobody ever falls off the middle of the wagon. That's The Weekly Vlog. I'll see you next week.
