Many people report the fear of failure when thinking about quitting smoking.
Why wouldn't they. Millions of us have tried to quit. Failed. Tried again. Failed.
My habit was to try and fail every day, sometimes more than once. By way of cheating - smoking that one cigarette I would go to the gas station to buy.
My cheating M.O. was that I would buy a single flavored cigarillos, sometimes two and smoke that. The rational being that if I bought a pack I would smoke a pack and that would be a bigger failure. I would only do this in an emergency. Like when I couldn't deal with the cravings or the external stress - more like I couldn't deal with the cravings combined with external stress. I would always cheat (IE: fail) when I felt like a rubber band pulled so tight it was in danger of breaking. Taking Chantix finally took the edge off that and allowed me to finally stop the cheating.
Another smoker gave me this advice: Never quit quitting.
It's pretty good advice. If we redefine failure then we can open the door for success. Is each cigarette the failure? Maybe.
But, the only way to truly fail is to quit quitting. To resign and say "I'm just going to keep smoking." That is failure. The rest of it, cheating, justifying, giving in, emotional turmoil is just part of quitting. At least that's what worked for me. How about you?
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Fear of Failure
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Wow, so ironic that this post is here. I am getting ready to post on blogfabulous that I am SCARED TO DEATH. I've been ready, ready, ready and now that it is here I keep telling myself no, no, no....I'm not ready!!! Why can't I remember how I have felt for the last 15 years when it comes to this day? I can't believe what smoking does to you. I honestly feel it's worse than an illegal drug. Its availibility makes it awfully hard to quit. I am determined. I have been keeping up with the Get-Quit program and wrote my goodbye letter. That felt childish at first, but it is awesome. My husband said it almost made him cry.......and that means a lot. He also hopes I never leave him! LOL
Tomorrow's the day............Lord help me. I know I can, I know I can, I know I can because can't never could.
I know you can too Tara. I responded in length to your fear here: http://quitcoping.blogspot.com/2007/10/smoking-and-baby-teeth.html .
(I feel like I'm buiding a virtual maze of links and responses. Go with me here, I've never had a blog of this nature before.)
Tracee
Post a Comment