The 2021 Green Day Challenge [OPEN]

Discussion in 'Events & Challenges' started by Deleted Account, Dec 18, 2020.

  1. Hello friends, and welcome to the most interesting and life changing challenge of the new year.

    Challenges, Challenges, Challenges:
    Our NoFap brothers and sisters have created endless creative and fun ways to challenge ourselves to abstain from porn, masturbation, and other sexual addictions ranging anywhere from one day to 365 days, or more. I have been a member here for nearly three years now, and although I took an extended absence, one pattern nearly always surfaces in these challenges; either you keep hitting the reset button, reverting back to zero days, and feel shame, guilt, regret, depressed, anxious about it :(...or you do achieve the 1/30/60/90/100 day challenge, and then relapse shortly after because you're no longer chasing anything.

    NOT EVERYONE FAILS:
    I acknowledge that some do go on to live porn free for seemingly forever, and I truly admire them for their commitment, and thank them for sharing their stories on the site to inspire confidence for us still in the game.

    You see, our brain literally tricks us to get what it wants. It tells us things like " You made it 30 days, one PMO wont hurt.... you deserve it". Then, we're left on a roller coaster ride of mental and emotional stress, as we give in, succeed again, give in, succeed some more, until we drive ourselves crazy and GIVE UP. I gave up. And I've read many reports from many members here that feel the same.

    SO WHY THIS CHALLENGE?
    If you have not seen it, check out my "START 2021 STRONGER Challenge"

    Through my interest in opening a door to closing 2020 stronger, and getting a burst of momentum, so to speak, leading into 2021 - I created a challenge that invited others like me to position themselves for success next year. Some members are doing great, some have struggled, and I suspect some signed up and never returned. When the challenge started, it was a one strike and you're out event. This evolved over the first couple weeks, and became a 5 tiers of success based event.

    NOW WHAT?

    I've given it a lot of consideration, and after many requests to do a 2021 challenge, I decided to change it up. If you're looking for something more like my Start 2021 Stronger format, you should check out @master3 's NO PORN 2021 challenge.

    I feel like there is one thing missing from this site, something that I do, and something that many others have adopted and given me credit for why they adopted this strategy. I'll call it a "Progress over Perfection" mentality. It's a simple idea really. Many of us aren't going to go 365 days without acting out. Some may not reach 7 days. But what if we SHIFT OUR THINKING?


    If you look at my signature you'll see an accurate tally for 2020 (as of 18 DEC) and my NOFap Journey. If you're not sure what all those numbers are here's a snapshot. Over the course of the year I've started 28 streaks, and relapsed 27 times. Relapse periods of anywhere from one event, or one day to 11 days ( my longest relapse). So I have used P and acted out (PMO) about 70 days of the year. These are RED DAYS. I've acted out without porn (MO) about 12 days. These are AMBER DAYS. And then, there are all the days I did not act out. About 270. These are GREEN DAYS, and frankly these are the days that matter. These 270ish days, make up over 75% of the entire year and honestly, without adopting the right philosophy, I'd be so wrecked about the 70 red and 12 amber days that all of these small successes would go virtually unnoticed. And I wouldn't even notice that I built up to over 30 consecutive days clean. So this is a challenge of PERSPECTIVE & PROGRESS... not PERFECTION.

    The Rules: There are no rules. YOU establish your own Green day/Red day/ Amber day criteria, and you track it on your calendar or any way you prefer. I'll include some tools in the next post to help.

    THIS IS YOUR JOURNEY.


    Want to join us in 2021? All you need to do is copy this line into your forum signature, and start to update it after 1/1/2021. Let us go on this voyage together!

    2021: Red Days 00 | Green Days 00* | Amber Days 00 | Longest Streak: 00


    Current Yoyagers

    @BrohkenCompass
    @Blue Clouds
    @HeadlessKnight
    @tonyk1982
    @Chakra_Serpent
    @D@rk
    @fredisthebes
    @Brahmacharya_UK
    @Ian Of Freelandia
    @Ainz
    @dharana
    @GottaBFree



    Final Standings (Self reported DEC 2021)

    Hall of Fame 90%

    Tier 1 75%
    PLATINUM Medal

    Tier 2 50%
    GOLD Medal

    Tier 3 25%

    SILVER Medal

    Tier 4 10%
    BRONZE Medal
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 12, 2021
  2. For starters, consider creating "events" on your mobile or other digital calendar. For me I just created events titled PMO, MOnp (no porn), SAwO (sexual activity/Orgasm. I simply added the event, and categorized it with the colors. Red/Amber/Purple. This makes it very east to go back and update my data at a later date.

    Below is an image of my spreadsheet tabs I used for tracking progress and streaks in 2020.

    For anyone vaguely familiar with formulas this should be easy to set up. The Purple (SAWO) column "F" is just me tracking when I had sexual activity with an orgasm, which I only used as a guide for tracking abstinence and hard mode attempts. I did not include it in the Green Day formula.

    1. Enter the date of the current month from "yesterday" and should subtract Amber and Red days Columns D&E shown.

    2. Add "one" to Column D/E if you have an Amber or Red day. As you can see...Mar, Jun, Dec were very bad times for me. Jan, Apr, Sep, Oct I was much more disciplined.

    ***Remember - YOU set your own guidelines for what these are. P-subs, fashion mags, Chat rooms, Prostitutes... what have you. For me MO is an amber day. PMO is a red day. Overall goal - to be 100% free of porn, and masturbation eventually.


    NF Monthly stat.JPG


    I also had a streak counter. Starting with my first streak, consecutive green days, sometimes only 1; followed by consecutive Red/Amber days on the next line, sometimes only 1.

    I track Midnight to Midnight, and I don't do the whole 24 hrs from 1042am if that's what time I MO'd. Either a day is Green (NO acting out) or it is not Green (Acting out). Days when I have sex with my spouse are Green as this is not something I am necessarily trying to "Abstain from" This is not the whole sheet for my chart, but you get the point.

    NF Streaks.JPG

    If you're good with Excel or Sheets, you can create a similar chart using the two columns B & C as your data source like shown below.

    This photo is actually my whole 2020 year - assuming I don't relapse before reaching 8 days on 31 DEC. As you can see, I have a Blue bar streak, followed by a red bar relapse. The higher the line, the longer the streak and or relapse binge.

    nfchart2020.jpg

    HOPE THIS HELPS...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 28, 2020
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  3. New Focus

    New Focus Fapstronaut

    I am so in. This is exactly what I have started doing since November 1 and this is progress. That covered 48 days, with 38 clean, 79%.
     
    BrohkenCompass likes this.
  4. Awesome. That settles it. I won't be alone. Cheers.
     
    Blue Clouds likes this.
  5. HeadlessKnight

    HeadlessKnight Fapstronaut

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    This challenge is a great idea, much more tangible to realize the progress. I used to have 20+ red/amber days in a month, when I met the ideas of nofap it became:
    August: around 15 days
    September: around 10 days
    (then I've met the challenges in this forum)
    October: 4 days
    November: 0 days
    December: 1 day
    I couldn't reach very long streaks yet, but this counting of red and green days can show to people that are constantly relapsing that they're way better than old days, cause they're trying and reducing the "red days"
    Count me in, let's paint the year with green
     
    BrohkenCompass likes this.
  6. New Focus

    New Focus Fapstronaut

    This is why I have adopted this strategy, as I have had decades of "failure"
    This is basically an adaptation of the "Spreadsheet Method", just more tangible.
     
  7. tonyk1982

    tonyk1982 Fapstronaut

    I would like to join for 2021.
     
  8. Our band of merry men grows.

    Welcome @HeadlessKnight , @tonyk1982

    Check in after New years for official tracking but we are already growing and can support each other.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 22, 2020
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  9. tonyk1982

    tonyk1982 Fapstronaut

    Excellent point about counting overall days instead of streaks and fantastic progress for you! For me a lifetime of 2x daily and regular binges w/PMO makes every clean day an accomplishment whether or not it is part of a streak. Stay strong my friend.
     
  10. Like this format much better than others.
    Sign me up for this challenge.
     
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  11. D@rk

    D@rk Fapstronaut

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  12. fredisthebes

    fredisthebes Fapstronaut

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    Great idea. I am in beginning 1st January 2021.
     
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  13. Brahmacharya_UK

    Brahmacharya_UK Fapstronaut

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    I'm in!
    MERRY Christmas
     
    BrohkenCompass likes this.
  14. Great. Welcome aboard.
     
  15. D@rk

    D@rk Fapstronaut

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    can't wait to see green days counter on 365
     
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  16. Chakra_Serpent and D@rk like this.
  17. All,

    See post #2, I added screenshots of my spreadsheet method tracker...
     
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  18. fredisthebes

    fredisthebes Fapstronaut

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    Varied challenges every month sounds good. Like everyone, i'm sure, there's lots of other related things i'd like to work on in 2021. Especially, managing my emotions and stress, cutting down other frivolous use of the internet/smart phone and keeping on top of my housework better. I'd also like to be in better shape. The usual! :)
     
  19. Brahmacharya_UK

    Brahmacharya_UK Fapstronaut

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    Hey @BrohkenCompass. Agree with @fredisthebes - having a bit of variety during the challenge seems like it would be a lot more involving and give even more purpose to the activity. My main focuses will be:

    - Properly working through the 12 Steps program
    - Having overwhelmingly more productive days, and spending as much time as possible in FLOW.
    - Getting out of the victim mentality from my childhood (i.e. growing the F-UP and leaving that S behind)
    - Balancing my life better in the following areas:
    --- Knowledge/Mastery: Becoming a much more advanced Python Programmer
    --- Financial: Working at better paid jobs.
    --- Spiritual: Meditate EVERY DAY (Not just weekday/office days). Also do a meditation retreat.
    --- Social: Go to more social events, increase my social circle.

    And basically, developing the right kind of self love, not the self-abusive kind.
     

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