It doesn’t seem that long ago since Christmas, and the New Year celebrations, but I am somewhat amazed that it is already February, and the time has just flown by…
My mum used to say, the older you get and the quicker the time goes… and it does seem like that. But of course in reality time is the same whatever age you are… an hour is still 60 minutes and there are still 364 days in the year. My own theory is that as we are, and I use this word tentatively, ‘progressing’ rather than ‘evolving’ we are cramming more and more into each minute and day so it feels like it is going quicker when of course in reality it is isn’t.
We live in fast times, where the order of the day is fast food, fast cars, and instant credit… Most of us, most of the time, are living in the future, either planning what we are going to do next (next task, next weekend, next week, next year) or worrying about stuff in the future… or both…. It comes as no surprise then to realize with all this ‘fast living’ and ‘future thinking’ we hardly notice the present moment and before we know it we are already in next week, next month and next year!
But what, you might well ask, as this all to do with quitting smoking? Well… if you were one of the many people (and indeed there were many as quitting smoking and losing weight are the TOP 2 most popular New Year Resolutions) who decided to quit smoking on 1st January, I was just wondering how you are getting on? Because here we are now in February and I’m wondering how many of you made it okay?
I’m hoping a lot of you did, but sadly, the statistics show that 80% of New Year Resolutions are broken by the end of January and when it comes to issues concerning health, most people tail off after the 2nd week. Don’t think it’s only smokers that have these poor results, because it stands the same for most things people want to change. Which gives us a clue as to what goes wrong…
Basically, it all comes down to a misunderstanding about smoking…
A non-smoker is not just someone who doesn’t smoke. True success is when you can say you never think about smoking. When there is no desire or need. And that takes time.
So don’t worry my friends if you’ve had a slip up… it’s part of the process. Quitting smoking is not a one-off event which you do one day and not the next… it is a process. A process of renewing one’s mind… and that takes time… So give yourself time… stop worrying or thinking about the future (about when you’ll have the next cigarette or how you’ll get by without smoking at Aunt Betty’s) and live in the moment, facing the challenges of the day.
I’ve attached a link to some slides of a webinar presentation I gave back in December, hope they are of some help to you and motivate you to give it another go…
http://www.slideshare.net/JackieHill7/get-ready-now-to-quit-smoking-in-2013
Catch you later…
