I�ve been reading a lot lately about people who climb mountains, specifically anything over 8000 metres high. Now this is a height over which is commonly referred to as the �death zone� or a place where the human body can no longer sustain life. It takes weeks to acclimatize enough to attempt such an altitude, but even so, in the death zone the air is so lacking in oxygen it saps the body of energy so severely that it can take 8-12 hours to traverse a few hundred vertical feet.
Remind you of anything? I digress�
There is something driving these climbers to reach that ultimate pinnacle, the top of the world, to be able to say �I did it.� The drive to achieve, the will to succeed is what presses them on, but when they get there, many are too exahusted to celebrate for long, because the climb back down is fraught with danger - in fact it�s more dangerous to climb back down than it was to reach the summit, due to exhaustion from the journey. Worse, now that they�ve reached their goal, the trip back to �reality� doesn�t drive them as hard, even with such a huge achievement top of mind.
Still with me?
To kick Nic, we climb hard for that pinnacle, through our own mental death zone and beyond, bloodied fingers and all. We brave the elements of our daily lives, we battle our will and we - finally! - get to the point where we say �hot damn, I made it!� But only then it REALLY gets hard. THEN, we need to get on to the part about living without nicotine. Turning around and going back down to an ordinary life. And at that point, how long�s it been since we�ve known such a life? 10 years? 20? 50? Ever?
I absolutely believe that stronger than any drug is the human spirit, the will to succeed at something. But tragically, when we feel defeated, when it gets too hard, that will is so dreadfully hard to dig up. I�ve no doubt that for many of us who smoked, particularly those who are currently finding it so desperately hard to quit the nicotine altogether, that will has been trampled over on so many occasions that it�s hard to remember we ever had a will to succeed in something. In ANYTHING.
But we did. Can you hold a knife in your hand? Tie your shoes? Colour within the lines?
A person who summits a mountain looks out across the peaks and celebrates success�success of the spirit, of the body (though oxygen starved - ring any bells?) but most importantly of the MIND. This I�ve read time and again: the most difficult thing about climbing a huge mountain is maintaining the power of the mind, keeping the body going through will alone. So keep climbing, peeps!
It�s so ridiculously easy to be weak - to say �I can�t do this, it�s too hard for me�. I was there, I nearly caved in on what should have been a great Paris vacation. But I kicked my own ash, raised my chin and asked myself what a waste of my energy it would be to have given up. What a cowardly thing to do.
To quit nicotine forever takes courage. Not mollycoddling, not affirmation that it�s ok to be weak - it takes COURAGE. Do you want to do this? Then do it. As I�ve said before, all you need to do is to STOP doing something. Stop smoking. Stop NRT. Just grit your teeth and stop. If you�re not ready, I hope you will be one day but no one will know that more than you. Keep reading, keep posting, and GET THERE.
To all who are struggling, I implore you to climb your own Everest, conquer your own K2. When you do, look back at us all and give a wink and a wave. We�ll be here smiling up at you with stories to tell of the great bend our roads have taken since we made the trip back to reality - there�s plenty of fresh air over here :)
You�ll see.
x T
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B]1/1/2007
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 308
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 7,084
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] �1,694.00
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 25 [B]Hrs:[/B] 15 [B]Mins:[/B] 56 [B]Seconds:[/B] 21
