650 Days - Merry Christmas!

Just dropping by to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

I know it's tough during the holidays for quitters. Lots of stress, lots of triggers, and lots of old habits rearing their heads.

But you can do it. I've been through the holiday season twice since quitting, and at this point, it's actually pretty darn easy.

You, too, can have the joy of being smoke free for a long time, if you simply take it one day at a time. That's what I did, and that's what every other successful quitter did.

Good luck and come join us in the Penthouse - there's room for everyone!

[nsd_user663_54305]

...it's actually pretty darn easy.

Well said DGee. Of course, if you want it to be, it can also be pretty darn* hard.

(*US to UK translation: darn = ferking)

OK so I'm being flippant - nobody wants to make it difficult, but once you reach a certain mindset, it really can be easy - madly easy; good grief, it must be easy, even I did it, the world's most hopeless smoker:o. But that's the puzzle - why; after struggling for years, does it suddenly become easy?

I don't want to come across as blowing my own trumpet, but something clicked for me very early on in this quit and I just knew failure was not an option. I know there are other members who quit around the same time as me who feel exactly the same - the steel, the determination, just jumps off the page:D; and I'm sure there are those who have quit before and since who are in that same comfortable place.

Others on the forum have battled for weeks, and even months, but are still fighting the threat of failure. Again, this jumps off the page, and it is a truly hateful place to be in - I know, because I was there myself for years.

If any long term quitter could capture what 'clicked' for them then they could sell it and get rich - but they can't, and they never will, because ultimately it has to come from within each of us.

When you're standing in the trees, you just can't see the woods. When you take a big leap of faith and walk away from the trees, the woods become pretty 'darn' obvious:D

[Hidden]

Well said DGee. Of course, if you want it to be, it can also be pretty darn* hard.

(*US to UK translation: darn = ferking)

OK so I'm being flippant - nobody wants to make it difficult, but once you reach a certain mindset, it really can be easy - madly easy; good grief, it must be easy, even I did it, the world's most hopeless smoker:o. But that's the puzzle - why; after struggling for years, does it suddenly become easy?

I don't want to come across as blowing my own trumpet, but something clicked for me very early on in this quit and I just knew failure was not an option. I know there are other members who quit around the same time as me who feel exactly the same - the steel, the determination, just jumps off the page:D; and I'm sure there are those who have quit before and since who are in that same comfortable place.

Others on the forum have battled for weeks, and even months, but are still fighting the threat of failure. Again, this jumps off the page, and it is a truly hateful place to be in - I know, because I was there myself for years.

If any long term quitter could capture what 'clicked' for them then they could sell it and get rich - but they can't, and they never will, because ultimately it has to come from within each of us.

When you're standing in the trees, you just can't see the woods. When you take a big leap of faith and walk away from the trees, the woods become pretty 'darn' obvious:D

This was such a great post I hope everyone really takes the time to read and ponder it.

What I know is that in my life, in many areas, I chose suffering and pain and anguish and such until one day, I simply stopped choosing that. Enough is enough, and all that.

And (speaking only for me) once I reached that point, it really was easy afterwards. I now firmly believe we can choose to make it hard, and we can choose to make it easy.

But as you say… knowing what makes it click isn't easy. Or something you can just call upon when you want to. I guess you have to struggle until you just don't want to struggle any more.

Or something like that.

[nsd_user663_26699]

Happy Christmas DGee!

Great to see you're still doing well.

Alex.