Actions Speak Louder Than Words

[JonesCarpeDiem]

I challenge every person quitting smoking to WILLINGLY go 130 days from your last puff and tell me your thoughts of smoking are still unmanageable.

"Willing" is the key word here. It is not willpower. It is acceptance.If you fight and resent quitting you will probably go back to smoking.

[elvan]

I took that challenge and my thoughts of smoking WERE manageable, something I seriously doubted was possible.  This site and the people here were incredible.  Those constant, nagging thoughts of smoking go away IF you LET them...YOU are holding onto them if you are fighting them tooth and nail!

[constanceclum]

I love the profile pic!. I am willing to continue to follow all of the advice and suggestions of everyone who knows more than I do about quitting smoking. I am willing to get on this site on a daily basis (at least) to the best of my ability. I will be smoke free at 130 days and will choose to not go back to smoking.

[freeneasy]

Dittto what Ellen wrote. It gives the process a doable qoal.

[pattyf]

I'll take that challenge, been one week today and feeling better already...

[MarilynH]

I Double Ditto what Ellen and freeneasy says , it makes the goal very doable and I am so thankful that I took the challenge. 

Marilyn 

[TerrieQuit]

Dale, Great challenge! I'm almost there! I'm beginning to have some real good days! Quitting smoking is very doable!

Terrie  116  DOF

[Zendlewise]

Took your advice a month ago, and although manageable. yes....I am still not feeling real comfortable with not smoking.  I am taking your challenge, but still have a way to go.  This little time and effort will be so worth it, because being free is so important to me.  

[Jennifer-Quit]

I've completed that challenge 4 times already - and it just keeps getting better folks!  130 + 130 + 130 + 130 + 27 = 547 days!!!!  It is so worth it!

[Puff-TM-Draggin]

I have accepted your challenge.  In 3 days, I'll be half way there.  Whether the prize you promise is waiting for me at the finish line or not, I still don't intend to smoke.

[scgquit]

I only have 126 more days!!!  Yayyyy.... 😞  I wish i done this earlier!  i feel so far behind! 

[cpsono]

The 130 day challenge is one of the things that kept me from smoking when I was on the roller coaster called "EARLY QUIT."   I'm 26 days past 130 now and the thoughts of smoking are much less than before.  Do I still think of cigs?  Yea, maybe I always will, but they certainly don't occupy my every waking thought.  Not only are the thoughts manageable, but I'm starting to reap the benefits of being a non-smoker.  Already, I can breathe better, my teeth are whiter, I smell better and my sense of smell has improved.  Not to mention, I have a nice chunk of change in my pocket where cigarettes used to be.  So hang in my fellow newbies and no-man's landers...there is a beautiful light at the end of the tunnel and I have to believe that it just keeps getting better!    CP

[TerrieQuit]

I don't think I really accepted the challenge, So I except! I can smell the freedom!

Terrie  116  DOF

[X4good]

Hmmm.... I'm not sure I want to take that challenge, I don't think it would be good for me... for this reason.  In Allen Carter's book he basically said taking a challenge or betting is like focusing on one date, and then once you hit that date you no longer have incentive to keep motivated in your quit.  See page 83 of his book.   And I have a feeling that having that challenge on me will add more uneccessary stress in my fear of failure, which then will probably set me up for failure and down the rabbit hole I would go.  I want to find a way to give me perpetual motivation.   Soooo...  I'm going to say this instead...   I will not smoke for the rest of my life.

Also I liked the quote from one of DrHays posts on motivation 10/9/15...

People often say that motivation doesn't last.  Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily. - Zig Ziglar

What are your thoughts on this?

[JonesCarpeDiem]

I don't want to be alan carr. 🙂

I don't know what alan carrs real time experience extended beyond personally  smoking 4 packs a day. if alan carr spent 30,000+ hours real time on a website watching people come and go, succeed and fail he might have had even more to say.

For me, when I hit 100 days I was struggling and read a medical study that said if you made it through 16 weeks, your chance of success was very good. That was about three weeks away. That thought kept me going those three weeks and those three weeks made all the difference.

I base the 130 days on this along with what I've seen people go through, when they begin to have days they don't think of smoking, the tough weeks after those first glimpses of freedom and seeing people give up within this period of time moreso than any other. I personally had my day of realization I never needed to smoke again on day 126.

But you do what is right for you.

[X4good]

Thanks for explaining the why of 130 days, that helps.  I'll assimilate this info for future potential use, just in case I need the push!   🙂

[NewMe]

I take the challenge. Today puts me with 59 more days in NML. More than halfway! And I'm glad to see that you admitted you were still struggling at 100 days. Not because misery loves company. It's because sometimes there is such a positive spin to the elder's blogs, it appears that you never struggled. And that sometimes makes me wonder if that makes me less likely to succeed in the long run (the struggling through this). So, I find it motivational to know others did struggle, but made it thru to the other side. Hope that makes sense.

[JonesCarpeDiem]

I did have my bad days. I had 3 in a row in the 50's. I could have easily smoked but I realized it wasn't because I wasn't smoking that I was depressed, it was because I had been out of work for a long time. There is always a reason but it doesn't have anything to do with smoking but in fact, life situations.