In an earlier post, I spoke about conviction, courage, and determination. Those are the three required pillars of success to quitting smoking. You have a solid reason to quit, you’re capable of standing up to the difficulties of quitting, and you have a driving force to reach your goal. But, are you excited?
If I had known when I first quit what I know today, I would have been excited! But, like most people, I saw quitting as a necessary evil in order to reap some nebulous benefits in the distant future. Sure, I had the three pillars in place and I felt confident that I would manage to quit successfully. I even acted quite cockily about the challenge, and yet I wasn’t excited. If anything, I was simply determined to beat the addiction. I didn’t know what to expect.
It’s hard to get excited when you can’t imagine the outcome of a situation. As a smoker, I lived with all the typical burdens of smoking; having to maintain a supply of cigarettes, spending money to keep the habit, dealing with health issues, seeing brown tar stains everywhere in my house, worrying about burning embers, the effect of second-hand smoke on my pets etc. At the time I wasn’t really aware that things could really feel any different. It was more a question of thinking “wouldn’t it be nice if…”
Now I can say with no uncertainty that “I am so excited that I no longer smoke!” I don’t need a supply of cigarettes, I don’t spend money on smoking, I feel a lot healthier, my house is clean, and my pets seem a lot happier (and I feel happier that I’m not inflicting smoking on them).
I know it’s not easy to imagine being excited about quitting, and I don’t expect anyone to be jumping for joy as they go through the process. Still, bear in mind that one day you too can feel excited about the results.