I recently wrote about the dangers of trying to take on too many simultaneous challenges while attempting to quit smoking in a blog entitled “What to do instead of smoking?” The premise of the article was to highlight the fact that people often try to improve their lives in bulk fashion rather than tackling one project at a time. For example, to stop smoking, lose weight, get fitter, pay more attention to their kids, focus more on their work, and so forth at the same time. The warning was about people trying to change all the negatives in their lives. But what about the positives?
Here is the good news. I firmly believe in people trying their hand at something new as a way of putting their energy into something that defocuses from smoking. Again, not multiple projects, but one sizeable project or two smaller projects that take up a sufficient amount of time to create a diversion, something to think about, talk about, something to get your teeth into. Pottery, painting, singing, dancing, learning a second language, teaching, taking care of animals, reading, playing a musical instrument, joining a theater or drama group, or running away to becoming a trapeze artist at the circus. OK, I might have got carried away with the last one (or maybe not) but you see what I mean.
Whatever it is you choose to engage in as a new activity is going to detract from smoking and provide you with an opportunity to indulge in something exciting, something to talk about, something to look forward to, something that will bring you closer to the new life of who you want to be. It doesn’'t have to be something extreme. All it takes is for you to come up with one or possibly two ideas of what you could realistically be doing with your spare time and go for the gusto. You can do it!
Alex.
