Time has come for me to start working on my first goal from the bucket list. You know how people from my first post God damn it! Do something!, who are talking about achieving various goals in your life, are always pointing out how important is never to quit while striving towards your goals. Well, there is one thing that many have tried to achieve, but few actually got there, and the only thing you need to do is… to actually quit! You probably know what I am talking about. Smoking!
This nasty habit that you probably picked up while you were in high school or college, probably to look cooler, stayed, although you are not in high school or college any more. Now you have small rituals built on this habit, you need one with your coffee, one after lunch, one when you get off the bus, one after work, many when you get out, and if there is no non smoking police at your work, god knows how many cigarettes you smoke a day!
Sounds familiar? This is my story, short one. I started on my first year of college and it was an act of rebellion. You see, during my first year of college, I was all about studying and good grades and so on.. but I neglected my social life, I didn’t have one actually and I got tired at the end of the school year and at that time I made some new friends, started going out with them and that was my period of liberation, and one of the things that liberation of mine brought was smoking. And it felt so good!
Seven years have gone since then and I’m still smoking. Now I buy one pack every two days, and although you might think that is not much, it is, I don’t even want to think how someone that smokes two packs a day feels… Your fingers always have that awful smell, the clothes also, your sense of smell is gone, you breathe harder, your heart is beating like hell even when you try to catch the bus or when you climb the stairs, and you put up with all that just because of some habit?! No more!
This is how the lungs of one non-smoker and one smoker look like
Not much of a difference, ha? I know that many people don’t care of their health until something actually starts to hurt. Well, if your health is not good enough reason for you, you can always count how much money you spend every month, every year… You would be surprised that you could actually go on two week vacation with that money. Still not good enough? What your family and friends think about it, your girlfriend, your husband, how about your child? Do you feel guilty smoking in the same room where your child is playing? No? It does not matter, as long as you find one reason to quit, that’s good, that is all you need.
As a non-smoker, you don’t need to tell smoker all this, he already knows. But what keeps them smoking, what keeps me smoking? Habit! When I go to work, I change three buses. I smoke one cigar while I wait the first one, then the second one, I maybe skip the third one, but there is another one before I enter the building where my office is. That is three or four cigarettes before nine o’clock in the morning! There is one before and one after lunch at 12:30 and one after work, and two more on my way home. That’s a lot! When I get out, I can smoke entire pack for that evening. I don’t want to do this any more!
That is the same routine every day. I even light up my cigarettes at the exactly same spots. So, since it is a habit, I will change it, I will kill it! I read somewhere that you need to prepare, to be ready when you get that craving for a little smoke. One thing I liked and I think is simple enough is eating nuts. It keeps your hands and your mouth busy, similar to cigarettes. I’ll try this and let you know how it goes? And one more thing, for the last two days, I have smoked only three cigars, I stopped buying the packs and those cigarettes that I smoked were offered to me by my colleague and my wife, I was weak to refuse.
I won’t be the next time!
I'll finish this! 