Have you ever noticed how your life just chugs along with you doing the same things, the same way, at the same times as you have been doing them for a long time? You have some goals for your life that are getting dusty in the corner, and you just don’t seem to have the time or inclination to get around to them or make them a priority. Sound familiar?
Well this happens to most of us. We are creatures of habit and routine. We get into ruts and find that it just takes too much time along with physical and mental energy to figure out how to meet those goals so they remain unfulfilled and we continue along the same path that we have been on.
And then every once in a while we’ll notice that opportunities for change seem within our grasp. This frequently takes the form of a lot of changes occurring with family and friend relationships, at work, and even within our self. We usually try to avoid these disruptions to our lives. In fact, we may go to great lengths to maintain homeostasis in our lives. This is actually an opportunity for us to re-examine our goals and contemplate accomplishing them.
Stopping tobacco use is one of those goals that is regularly shunted to the side while we continue on with our “real” lives. Well, your real life CAN include accomplishing those goals…including stopping your tobacco use! When life starts to throw you curve balls, grab on and redirect that energy in a productive way and harness it to help you get moving toward being tobacco free.
If you start to pay attention I’m sure you will find that there are actually numerous opportunities to grab life by the horns and accomplish those things you have been meaning to do for years.
Dr. Richard D. Hurt is an internationally recognized expert on tobacco dependence. A native of Murray, Kentucky, he joined Mayo Clinic in 1976 and is now a Professor of Medicine at its College of Medicine. In 1988, he founded the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center and since then its staff has treated more than 50,000 patients for tobacco dependence. Send your questions directly to Dr. Hurt at AskTheExpert@becomeanex.org
