I am a person who expects a lot from myself . I was brought up needing to be a perfectionist by others but I am not one .
My quit was hard yet easy . It was black or white , quit or don't quit . There was no grey area, no room for mistakes , no reason to quit quitting if I wanted to be quit . So I took smoking off the table and decided I would do something different than reach for a cigarette ... it was really that easy . Do something different ! What a concept . This simple !
Reach for a smoke . Stop , think and do something different .
Keeping these words clear in my head was all it took . I didn't need a book in there of how to's , there really wasn't aplan other than not smoke period .
I did adopt one other tool however before I'd even known it was a tool in the quit tool box and again , keeping it simple those words were "post , don't smoke " For me those couple of simple phrases were the perfect formula, simple and effective for my quit journey .
For the most part it was just a battle of the mind and I understood to accept the craves and embrace them that would alleviate their intensity . I learned that walking would relieve the side effects of quitting ie you know , that feeling like something was missing or that something had been taking away from me and it gave me something back to look forward to . I started loving my quit more than being afraid of the next crave . I began to see the trip as an adventure , a challenge , and I could write the story.
But .....
I am curious are you a perfectionist type person or not . Meticulous maybe ? Carefree ? Kind ? Funny ? Creative? A giver ? Stubborn ? What qualities of your personality do you think you can use to help your quit ? I used my stubbornness a lot lol . My no meant no . A perfectionist I think makes clear and precise paths to complete their work . Many also like to go it alone and that's me but this time I reached out . I also believed to be quit I needed it to be perfect and left no grey area for mistakes to be made . I was going to be quit or smoke . There would be no in between because in between made me a smoker . One puff is never enough !
What about you , what do you know about you that you can use to your advantage to help you in your quit ?
It might be a quality you have to help others , which in turn helps you or it might be a character tool to help you say no to smoking every single time the thought comes to mind that you can't do this . Keep it simple and use it .
Because .... the truth is .
You can do this .
Maki
