Keep Quiet and Quit
March 21st, 2009It seems many people if not most have a considerably hard time when trying to quit an unhealthy addiction. Whether it be alcohol, cigarettes, drugs or the wrong foods, quitting might seem just too hard to do. However, in many cases people put undue pressure on themselves to quit by first of all telling others what they are going to do before they actually succeed. In some cases that extra pressure might lead to failure virtually straight away.
I was at work the other day when a normally grumpy and permanently tormented work colleague of mine came over to me and told me he was having a great day. At first I assumed he was just being sarcastic since this guy had never had a great day since birth and constantly loved telling anyone who would listen just how miserable his life had always been. The strange thing was that he was serious, he really was having a great day and I noticed this as soon as I looked at him. I immediately thought this guy was game taking drugs at work and I told him so. With a smile he confidently reassured me he was not on drugs.
There was no easy way to put it so I just told him straight up that this was the first time I had ever seen him happy and it was a very pleasant change indeed. He then proceeded to tell me why his life had just taken a tremendous change for the better.
Craig had been smoking cigarettes since before he was a teenager and was now in his forties. He had tried to quit smoking more times than he cared to remember, usually only ever lasting a few days if that. On this occasion however, he did something he had never done before and at this stage it would appear he had finally achieved his goal to quit smoking once and for all.
It had been over a month since Craig had a cigarette and the cravings he told me had pretty much disappeared. He was literally jumping out of his skin and it was very obvious in the way he was talking and in his mannerisms in general. Craig told me every time he had previously tried to quit smoking he had told everyone at home and at work that this time he was definitely going to quit and occasionally even bet money with people he had the will power to do it. This time was different since he was sick and tied of people laughing at him when they saw him smoking another cigarette after he had declared he would quit.
He told me he did not even tell his wife or his kids, he simply kept himself very busy at home and while at work and the first week went a lot fastest than he had imagined. The second week was a little tougher since he had never made it to the second week before but after that he felt it had just gotten easier and easier. His wife and kids were so proud and happy for him that he is now starting to see life without those thick, smoky clouds hanging over him.
He wrote a list of all the reasons why he should not smoke and told me the list was long but when he came to write the list of reasons why he should keep smoking he could not come up with a single reason why. He attributes his success to the fact he desperately wanted to give up smoking but the fact he did not tell anyone he was going to quit this time is one of the primary reasons why he is now a non smoker. So this is certainly an excellent rationale to keep quiet and quit.
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