So here I am….I made it to DAY 5!! Now don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been an easy 5 days. I have suffered a little bit of irritability/crankiness – but not nearly as much as previous attempts to quit. I have had the mild cravings, which I laugh at (another way to mentally trick the addiction). I have had BAD cravings, where I end up in tears because I want just one more cigarette. Mostly, I have been feeling PROUD of myself. That is not an emotion that I am familiar with. You see, while I smoked, there was always this nagging guilt and shame hanging around. I hid it from the kids, and certain friends because I didn’t want them to be disappointed in me. I didn’t want them to think less of me for being a smoker. I am going to embrace this emotion of PRIDE and run with it…..because dammit it FEELS GOOD!
I have always been a “mental goal setter”. I play little games with myself. I used to do it with smoking sometimes. If I was ready for a cigarette, I would challenge myself to wait another 15 minutes before going outside to light up. Now that I am on my new journey of being a non-smoker, I am continuing this game. I have set my first mental goal at 10 days – DOUBLE DIGITS. It may not seem like a lot to some, but for me DOUBLE DIGITS is huge! Think about it – when you were 8 or 9 years old…..you couldn’t wait to be 10!! I am going to embrace this childlike feeling and focus on making it to DOUBLE digits on day 10. I will celebrate ~ although I haven’t figured out how I will celebrate ~ but it will be something special, because I am special and I will have made it through 10 days as a non-smoker! I CAN NOT wait! It is nice to look forward to something other than my next opportunity to smoke.
Has anyone else set goals or milestones in their quit process? If so, did you do days, hours, weeks, etc.? What worked for you?
