I was a smoker. Yep. Smoked for most of my life. Sometimes I wondered what not smoking would be like, but I always knew that quitting smoking was just over the horizon. Couldn’t quite see it, but it was there. I was sure of it!
In fact, I was sure for thirty or forty years. I thought about the health risks and knew that soon, I’d be quitting and that besides, bad things only happened to other people. I looked at the horizon day after day, waiting for that quit to appear.
I was sure there must be some magic, somewhere out of sight in that place that was close and yet so far away. Soon I was racking up the years, never even slowing down on keeping my addiction happy. Why? Bad things only happen to others, after all. I mean really, the magical quit is just over the horizon. I could almost see it a time or two, but laughed that silly notion off. After all, bad things only happen to other people.
And then one day out of nowhere, reality set in. I suddenly wanted to see the magic that I always knew lived just over the horizon. I decided it was time to bring that horizon to me! But how?
That’s when I realized that there was no magic there and that the only magic for me would be the magic that I created when I actually quit. And suddenly, that spot just over the horizon became something incredibly scary! I feared that thing that for so long I thought I could do whenever I wanted.
I knew I could no longer wait for that magical and easy quit to appear. No. I had to create my magic! The fantasy that I’d lived for so long was actually a lie! And the thing is, I knew it was time. I had to quit smoking for my future! I had to quit smoking for those that I loved and wanted to spend more time with. I had to quit smoking because I could no longer be a slave to - uh - myself!
And so I cast off those old thoughts of the magical quit that will never appear and decided to go for it! I decided once and for all that I would be free. And that one day, I really would quit. It took a while to prepare simply because I’d been so unprepared for the better part of my life. The world of smoking had become ingrained into everything I did.
And then when I stared at the horizon I realized that once I quit, there was a new life waiting there, just over the horizon and that no magic was going to get me there. I prepped hard, wanting to get to that new place that I knew was waiting for me. And over time, I did create the magic that would be the foundation of my quit.
And that magic was determination and a burning desire to be free. I nurtured this newfound desire, making it the most important thing in my entire life. And when I quit. When I actually stepped over the horizon and into a new world I understood at last that there really was a magical new world awaiting me! There really was everything I was looking for in life. And I understood that no matter what I was going to keep that magic close to me as a precious new quit!
I still gaze at the horizon at times. I still wonder what it would’ve been like if I hadn’t created my own magic rather than waiting for it to come to me. I know my life wouldn’t have been pretty. I know my life would be filled with a kind of darkness of my own creation.
Go for it! Never believe that there’s nothing for you over the horizon. It’s there! The freedom and peace that can only come from a determination to never, ever give up on ourselves!!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
Chuck
