How Do You Hold on When the Going Gets Tough?, Quitnet Re-Post, October 28, 2004
From BaldGuy66 on 10/28/2004 1:17:30 PM
Posted by BaldGuy66 on 3/16/2004
That InnerJunkie™ tries to wear us down. It doesn`t last forever, but sometimes you need to concentrate that strength that you`ve already shown, and boil it down, put it to work at one instant in time, the instant when you just can`t take anymore: and don`t give up.
Imagine time as a conveyor belt, a long conveyor belt that stretches to infinity in two directions. You`re standing alongside it, and every few minutes, a cigarette goes by on the belt. You always have the option of reaching for one, when it goes by. You can only reach so far in either direction. There will only be one cigarette in reach at any given moment. Its pull is most powerful when it is right there beside you. THAT is the moment that you need the most strength -- just for that moment, when it would be so easy. Then it`s going off into the distance, and it`ll be a little while before the next one comes along. Then you choose again.
Each time you choose rightly, you get a little bit stronger. It gets a little bit easier to choose rightly the next time.
After a while, you`ve gotten so good at this, you don`t even have to fight anymore, for the most part. You just watch it go by. You know it`s there. But you know you have the strength to leave it there on the conveyor belt.
Sometimes, once in a while, you might have to call on your friends to stand on the other side of the conveyor belt and remind you why you don`t want to take that cigarette off and smoke it. And that`s okay. We`re allowed to ask for help.
Eventually, you won`t even notice the darn thing. You`ll trip over it once in a while, or you`ll see someone else walking (or running) up to take a cig off the belt, but you`ll know you don`t have to, and you don`t want to have to keep going back, watching the clock, making sure you`re ready for that next fix to come down the line.
Anyway, that`s how you get through. Making the right choice at the exact moment you need most to make it.
And I`ve rambled. I knew there was one in there somewhere.
***
BG
435 days, 1 minute and 59 seconds smoke free.
5220 cigarettes not smoked.
$1,670.40 and 1 month, 9 days, 21 hours of my life saved.
My quit date: 8/20/2003 1:15:00 PM