GUS (Gave Up Smoking) is a community support diary for Kossacks in the midst of quitting smoking. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are quitting or thinking of quitting, please -- join us!
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I don't know about you guys, but I've never been a big New Year's Resolution person. Perhaps it was a fear of failure. Perhaps it was because my self-image as an "outsider" or "rebel" convinced me that it wasn't cool to go along with the crowd (and since it seemed everyone was making New Year's Resolutions, that meant I shouldn't...the same genius reasoning had me smoking twice as much on Great American Smokeout Day). Yeah, I know that makes no sense. What can I say? I'm kind of an idiot that way.
But despite my conscious decision not to make resolutions, I think on some level it registered with me that the New Year was a good time to start something new...or to start over on something that hadn't worked out before. I go through boxes of stuff I've saved and find an inordinate number of how-to guides and articles on home organization, a perennial struggle for me.
Many of these have a January date on them, which is no accident - editors realize that lots of folks use the turning of the calendar to start some kind of lifestyle makeover: lose weight, get fit, control those finances, fix your relationship, get organized...if you took a look at any magazine rack right now, the covers would feature these things and more. They may call it a New Year's Resolution or not, but the fact remains: for many, a new year = a fresh start.
For many struggling with a nicotine addiction, quitting now (or, more likely, on Friday) means that they will have a lot of company. Some will try to go Cold Turkey (it can work; I'm one of those rare Cold Turkey success stories, five years smoke-free) thinking it's purely about willpower. It's not; it's an addiction, and the more help you get for it (nicotine replacement therapy, medical advice, group support), the more likely you are to succeed.
The New Year's Day Cold Turkey Quitter may end up smoking again in a few days, discouraged and commiserating with the lapsed Extreme Fad Dieter, the failed Overnight-Couch-Potato-to-Gym-Rat, and the Wannabe Organizer who bought all the books but isn't organized enough to read and organize at the same time. The zero-to-sixty approach works on occasion, but usually you get the demoralizing crash and burn instead.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Do a little planning, enlist some help (it's okay to ask for help, really!), seek out positive reinforcement, use all the tools you can muster, and give yourself permission to slip up and hop right back on board that wagon.
Most importantly, be kind to yourself. The average quitter takes seven attempts. Seven! And since that's the average, half of us take twice as many tries. So don't start beating yourself up if you give in to a craving...just tell yourself that one little slip doesn't mean the whole attempt is trashed and you have to wait for next year's resolution to make it stick.
Anyone out there contemplating turning over a new leaf in a few days? If the leaf in question isn't just metaphorical, but rather shredded, dried, chemically altered, high-priced, GOP-funding tobacco, we've got lots of folks here who have been in your shoes and can give you all sorts of excellent advice on quitting - and more importantly, on staying quit. Will 2010 be the first year of your new, smoke-free life?
"I know it's never too late/To make a brand new start." - Paul Weller
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