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Share your quitting journey

I didn't set a quit date until I had proven to myself I didn't need to smoke just because I thought I did.

JonesCarpeDiem
Member
2 5 62
‎11-23-2018 07:12 AM

Of course I didn't realize what I was doing at the time but,

one simple step was all it took.

I simply caught myself before I smoked and said to myself

"I'm going to wait a little longer."

That's it. That's all I did.

In 4 weeks I went from 20 cigarettes a day to 5.

I never denied myself a smoke, not once.

What happened was I got off auto-pilot.

Getting to 5 wasn't the miracle because I wasn't counting.

The miracle was unlearning it's control.

I didn't put that together at the time either.

But

I was ready. 

I knew it when I bought my last pack.

It hit me when I pulled the $5 out of my pocket.

I was ready.

Teach yourself where you are going, then, pick up your feet.

5 Comments
About the Author
Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.