Good morning! Just stopping by to share a little. First off, thank you for sharing my six year smoke free anniversary with me yesterday. These kinds of days are good for remembering just how far one has gone.
Quitting smoking is in reality an amazing event for many reasons. We find that we have to look inside of ourselves and really learn the innermost parts of our beings in order to quit. We have to first understand how we got in this mess of addiction in the first place before we can understand how to get out of it.
To me, thinking of the beginning helped me to reach that part of myself that needed to be reached in order to succeed. I was quite young when I first started smoking, and for me I started mostly because of peer pressure. You know, as a kid we tend to not think of the consequences of our actions when we make decisions. It’s really not an excuse. Rather, for me it’s just a fact of life.
When I realized for the first time why I started building my addiction, I was able to forgive myself of my past mistake. To me, this is important. Taking a moment to say, “OK! What I did in the past was stupid, but that was then and this is now. I will fix my past transgression, and move on!” was a first step for me.
One cannot change the past, but the present can be used to change our future. I always try to remember that what I do right now, on this day will decide what my future will look like. On the harder days of my quit, this was like a mantra to me. Thinking of the future and wanting that future of freedom more than anything makes it easier to deal with what we’re feeling right now.
But the main thing that we do when we quit is create a change in our lives. One that might not seem easy at first, but one that completely changes the future.
It’s human nature to fear change. It’s just a natural part of us that’s related to the survival instinct. Just like climbing a mountain, the task can seem insurmountable when we take that first step upward. But looking to that summit and longing to be there no matter what it takes distracts us from the reality that we must now live.
So take heart! Never believe that this new change in your life will be anything but wonderful! Try to see yourself in a month or a year, holding your head high and being proud of what you did back in the beginning. And each day of success builds for the next day. Each day of success takes us to new heights and soon, like on the mountain, we can look back and see just how far we’ve come.
Soon, we can see just how close the summit really is. And yes, with each passing day we find strength. With each passing day we find a better life. Soon rather than dwelling on our current discomfort, it becomes easy to look ahead and grasp the coming freedom and in the end I can now say from experience that you’ll be glad you took that first step. Life will just look so much brighter! It’s within all of us to win. All we have to do to get started is get past that fear of change and embrace what lies ahead!
ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!
Chuck
