A fellow EX commented on a post of mine yesterday and it really opened my eyes to how I've always viewed quitting smoking and gave me insight into maybe why I've never stayed quit.
He pointed out how, in my post, I use the present tense when referring to smoking and the routine that comes with it; " I smoke on my lunch breaks." " I smoke when i'm driving."
He basically said our success often depends on our mindset and affects how we see and feel, and by using the present tense, instead of past tense, when talking about smoking I'm impacting the way I see myself and this attempt to quit.
At first I didn't really get it. I didn't see how that would have any real impact on smoking or not smoking. However, the more I've thought about it the more I see it. All the times I've quit I've always felt like I had to reach a certain point, a certain milestone, a certain date, to say "I quit smoking." I've believed this, I suppose, because I don't know that I won't slip up tomorrow and give up. So it never seemed right to claim I was no longer a smoker... not if there was a chance I would smoke again.
However, I can now see how my way of thinking is flawed. I've essentially set myself up for failure all of these years and all of these attempts to quit. Coming at it from a different perspective this time.
