You�re special. Yes, you read that right, YOU. You�re unique, you�re freakin� gorgeous (to pilfer from the great Unhooked!) and you�re ready to take control of your life instead of staying a slave to Old Nic.
Everyone here is bursting with pride and faith in you for planning your quit. But we implore you to remember: all this time it�s been YOU who raises the cigarette to your lips, YOU who lights the tip, YOU who sucks down the life-threatening poison to tar your lungs, yellow your fingers, foul your hair, dry your skin. YOU.
So why in the world would focus your drive for stopping smoking on anyone else but YOU? You see, quitting for anyone else but YOU gives you a whole raft of ready-made excuses to fail. It breaks my heart to see people struggle so please put on your ponderer with me and ponder these scenarios:
1. You quit smoking for your partner / spouse. One day a month in, you get so angry with him your emotions get the best of you and you go out and buy a pack just to spite him. Ha HAH! Take that you swine! But whaddaya know? The anger doesn�t fade after one, and now you�re spitting mad at yourself for having that one, so you smoke the whole pack, and whizz bang now you�re on 20 a day again. You�re not planning to break up or divorce, yet he�ll infuriate you again some day and the smokes don�t do a damn thing to prevent it. Whoa nellie, what a massive failure.
2. You quit smoking for your kids. Two months in you catch your teenage son smoking with his friends outside the local shopping mall. His expression says �see what you�ve done?� So you think �yes, see what I�ve done. I�ve failed him, it�s too late�. �To hell with it,� you think, before you go and buy a pack, smoke it all, shazam 20 a day. Six months later, son is bumming smokes from mum. Whoops failed again. Failed your son too.
3. You quit smoking for YOU. A month in, your spouse really annoys you, but your head is free of the drug, so although you�re shocked at the sheer weight of your emotions, somehow you�re now able to articulate them. You actually TALK THROUGH a problem for once in your life. A few days later, you catch your son smoking at the shopping mall but merely lob a heavy look of sorrow his way. �I hope you can get off those,� you say. �I wasted so much of my own life.� Your son, speechless, wilts and stubs out the smoke. You�re now a positive role model.
Which would you prefer?
In the past few weeks I�ve had a few heavy anger moments and thought �I would have smoked just then.� But I didn�t want to and I didn't smoke. I didn't because I quit smoking for myself. To heal myself. To better myself. And I�m not about to let myself down. The world works against us in so many other ways, and sometimes �I�, �me�, is all we have.
So I beg you to quit for �I�. Take good care of �me�. You�re the only one who really can.
x T
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B]1/1/2007
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 320
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 7,360
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] �1,760.00
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 26 [B]Hrs:[/B] 15 [B]Mins:[/B] 48 [B]Seconds:[/B] 50