Share your quitting journey
Perspective IS important. Some thoughts to ponder.
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On Difficulty to Quit ...
"Life is difficult. It is a series of problems to be solved. Contentment and self-esteem are not ends in themselves -- they are the by-products of facing challenges honestly and courageously. I can run from the difficulty of my cravings and conflicts, or I can embrace and experience them for a much more satisfying life. Today I will embrace the difficulty of not smoking as a small price to pay for a very worthwhile end."
"Stopping smoking has positives and negatives. The positives are the wonderful physical and psychological benefits that come from not smoking. The negatives are the difficult moments -- lots of them early on, fewer as time goes by -- that are part of being an ex-smoker. If I don't accept the negatives, I won't get the benefits. If I'm not willing to pay the price, I don't get the payoff. I will either have both the good and the bad, or I'll have neither because I'll be smoking. For now, I choose to embrace not smoking -- both the difficult moments and the wonderful rewards. I accept it all, good and bad alike."
"Smoking is much harder than not smoking. As a smoker I was obsessed with stopping smoking. I thought about it all the time. Not a day went by when I didn't say to myself, "This is crazy. I've got to stop doing this to myself." When I first stopped smoking, I was totally preoccupied with smoking for the first week or so. But the amount of time I focus on it has been declining steadily, and it is quickly becoming a very minor issue in my life. I think about smoking less and less all the time, and much less than when I was still smoking."
"There is no free lunch. Anything worth having requires effort. And this is especially true of stopping smoking. To successfully control my addiction I need to accept moments of craving and make decisions to forego instant gratification for the greater long-term satisfaction. I need to spend time occasionally in conflict, thinking about what's important to me and what kind of life I want to have. I need to work at honesty and keep stopping smoking a high priority. If I don't bemoan the intrinsic difficulty of stopping smoking -- I can welcome it as a worthwhile task, freely chosen."
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From "Out of the Ashes" by Peter & Peggy Holmes.
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