Good morning Exers!,
Four years ago today I turned my dream into a reality, put out my last cigarette and took my freedom back from addiction. Sure, it was a little hard at first but I always kept my eye on the future, confident that this was where my success lied.
And now I’m there, living in that very future that I once dreamed of and it’s wonderful to know that this future is so much better than it might have been had I not decided to take that first step on a journey that is indeed long, but not horrible. In fact, every year of freedom feels even more precious than the last.
During those first days that I walked the path of freedom, I came here and believe me, it helped. There’s something about a group of people who have like thoughts and desires coming together. It’s simply a powerful weapon to use against our addictions.
But today, I’m not really here to talk about the current discomforts. No, today I dropped in to tell you of the future and how good that future feels when all of the work we do now gets us to where we can live it. I can tell you that down the road so long as you stick to your quit, there is peace. There is calm. There is life and yes, there is the love for our families that we thought of while we were quitting.
So often during my quit I’d find myself focusing on the future. Looking ahead and seeing myself doing things without cigarettes, I’d visualize working in my garden or taking a nice scenic drive without those cigarettes. At first those visions didn’t make much sense to my addicted mind. They were images of a world that I didn’t yet know how to live for you see, we have to learn our new world of freedom and this takes time.
But eventually as with all of us, my mind began disassociating the activities that I dreamed of from the cigarettes. It became easier to see myself doing these activities without the old crutch. And so, like all of us, I began living this life of freedom. I began facing those withdrawals that I knew would be there. I put one foot in front of the other and found that path to freedom.
It’s there for all of us you know. All it takes is a belief in our futures and a desire to see that future smoke free. It takes a commitment to ourselves to wheather those first hard days. And then, after the initial fight is over, it takes a commitment to our futures to really be free.
Stay focused on the reward of freedom and let that reward be the one thing you desire more than anything and before you know it, you’ll be writing one of these, four years later!
Oh and the freedom is everything I thought it would be. Life just seems to much more pure now. There’s no longer planning my days around an addiction because I just don’t have to anymore. No longer must I find those moments in the day to sneak a puff. No longer do I have to worry about damaging my body. Like we all do, I’ve made peace with my past and the mistakes that I’ve made and moved on to a brighter future.
So all I’m saying is stay on the path of freedom and in the end you’ll find that peace and believe me, it’s well worth the wait!
Have a wonderfully successful week!
Chuck
