How could he make this assumption without any experience or knowledge of the addiction? We argued for 30 mins and came to two very opposite opinions and agreed to differ. In other words I backed down and let him think he had made a valid point.
It was easier for me to do this as I thought it would be impossible to educate him in the trials and tribulations of a seasoned smoker like myself. If only he knew and could feel how difficult in reality it actually was to kick this vile habit and addiction. His simple answer to the problem was "just don't light up and stop altogether".This annoyed me as much as it would annoy any smoker that regrets taking up cigarette smoking.
His statement festered in my head for a long time after that, it didn't sit easily with me. I began to think alot about what he had to say. I took on board what he had said and began to doubt what I had always believed to be true, that giving up cigarettes was indeed extremely difficult. What if he was right, what if we are just led to believe that the task in hand of quitting smoking is an uphill battle. I decided from that moment on that I would change my mindset and train of thought. Maybe there was some truth in the statement, if we start the journey of quitting cigarettes or any addiction we need to banish all pre conceptions and anecdotal hearsay regarding the difficulties in quitting smoking.
With this in mind I started afresh, I threw away all my original thoughts on the subject and said to myself how easy it was to quit cigarettes. I became very positive about the whole quit process and the penny dropped. Many thoughts that swim around your mind during a quit attempt are of a negative nature, they can hamper your success to be nicotine free any time soon. The crux of it all is to beat this habit from the positive perspective. Laugh at yourself, belittle the habit, tell yourself that you could have quit years ago. Convince your mind that you are know taking back control of the habit, its now in your hands, Don't beat yourself up, don't stress, just stay focused on the task at hand and most importantly don't get consumed by the whole quit process. Its just something you wanna do!
Back to my friend and his bold statement that changed my way of thinking. I never told him that I thought he was right because he didn't see the habit from where I was standing, he couldn't understand the hold it has over you. He acted as the catalyst, but my new train of thought was all down to me, I was the catalytic reaction. Keep the faith and soldier on. I'm routing for you all....
No comments:
Post a Comment