We all know success doesn’t happen overnight. In almost anything in life that we succeed in doing well, chances are we’ve gone through many weeks and months of planning and goal setting and hard work to get there. The same is true for quitting smoking.

Some quitters come into it thinking it will be a cinch.... they just throw the smokes out the car window and that’s that. Some (like me) smoked fewer cigarettes per day than most hard core smokers so they think it will be easier and they should be able to get it licked in a couple weeks. This thinking is all BEFORE embarking on the quit, mind you.

It doesn’t take long at all to realize that becoming smoke free doesn’t just “happen”. There are many many facets and stages of the process. The first day or two or three, or 7..... You wonder the whole time why you decided to do this in the first place, and probably doubting at some point that you’ll be able to stay off the smokes if it means going through that kind of agony all your life. Then it begins to get a little easier. A few weeks and maybe even a month pass by a little more quicker than that first week.... for sure. Each time you fight off a craving you are building stamina, you are learning from it in order to make it through the next one.

Then when you conquer the physical addition, you begin to realize you have another fight on your hands ... The psychological addiction. I never believed in any of this hogwash until I experienced it myself. I always thought it was just a physical thing. Boy was I wrong.... and I was wrong for over half my life !!! Becoming free of the chains of always reaching for a smoke when you’re angry, when you’re hurt, when you’re hungry, when you’re nervous, when you’re sad, when you need to relax, when you’ve just filled your stomach with good food, when you’re chain smoking. These are the times when the physical addiction doesn’t even come into play. I think in some ways we fight the psychological addiction for the rest of our lives to some extent. It gets easier, because after you get a bunch of time under your belt, you know that nothing is unknown anymore. You know what to expect after you’ve been doing this awhile.

Speaking from experience.... I truly am entirely different INSIDE than I was last year at this time. I’m just beginning to get to know ME.... without always having that crutch sitting right beside me so I didn’t have to deal with the emotions...the thoughts that were painful... and the other demons the addiction was covering up.

Please, friends new and old, brave new quitters, and those just “thinking” and planning..... be prepared for something more than just taking a month or 2 to get over the physical addiction. It just doesn’t happen that way. This PROCESS takes time.... it takes patience......more patience than you’ve ever had to muster in your life.

But.... look what you will be giving yourself... renewed physical health like you’ve never known before.... and the chance to take a good look at that terrific person you really are deep inside.... It’s simply amazing. My wish is for every smoker on earth to experience the freedom quitting can give them....

Keep fighting everyone....!! It’s worth it !!!!!

(just my thoughts for a mundane Monday evening....)

Jan (one year, two weeks, four days)