I quit and relapsed 8 times in my past. The things you’re going through now? Yeah, I’ve been there and done that, too. Again and again. So, these next several thoughts are coming from someone who is GETTING IT so that you can GET IT, too, and KEEP IT. And I’ve said these exact same things to myself at some point, so this is either me talking to you, or it’s me talking to myself, out loud…whichever resonates with you today.
Have you not already been there?
Remember when you quit that time before, but relapsed to the drug…and relapsed the time before that, and the time before that, and yet again before that? Do you think there’s not more embarrassment at failing waiting for you, again? More thoughts of feeling weak? More thoughts of feeling stupid and shameful and addicted because of a cigarette? You think these are not all that’s waiting for you, again?
Have you not already been there?
Do you think there is something NEW to be discovered under the same ol’ wreckage of all your broken quits, if only you would go back there - yet again! - to add more rubble to the heap? Seriously?
Have you not already done that?
You already know that cigarettes are poisonous, so please stop yearning for them like you need one to get nourished, or to get sane, or to be normal again. You do not.
You already know that smoking was making you sick, so please stop wrestling with the urge to go back to smoking just so you can say, “Yep, these sure do make me feel sick. Yuck! I was right all along.”
You already know that you never, ever, smoked “just one” cigarette in your entire life, so please stop getting seduced by the crazy notion that “just one” is possible now. It is not. It won’t ever be.
Please stop thinking that you are too disadvantaged, too depressed, too far gone, too addicted, too weak, too stressed, too tired of quitting to have not learned that quitting and relapsing, quitting and relapsing, quitting and relapsing is no decent way to live.
YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN THERE!!!! Not once, but (probably) 4 or 6 or 8 times!
So, here’s what I’m asking you to do: LEARN FROM YOUR OWN PAST. Even someone who ignores every piece of guidance offered here can learn something new by doing the OPPOSITE of the failed things they, themselves, have already done before. Don’t want to learn from us? Then, learn from yourself!
What’s BEHIND you that you want so badly? More of the same pointless and poisonous lifestyle that you cursed? STOP looking over your shoulder like you missed something. There is nothing behind you that you don’t already know…and already hate.
Have you not already been there?
Isn’t it about time that you started learning how to be HERE? On the OTHER SIDE of this thing? A place where you know you want to be? The place where you should be? You cried for it, begged for it, yearned for it, proclaimed your desire to win it and protect it. Well, it’s HERE! Right in front of you, for the taking! It’s HERE. It’s FORWARD. It’s the WORKABLE NOW that is leading the way to the LIVEABLE FUTURE.
You’ve already been there before, so how about being here now, for a change?
STORM: 284
