The Great American Smokeout Is Today And I Don’t Care

I smoked for many, many moons.  I know how enjoyable it is.  I also know how harmful, expensive and blah, blah, blah it is.  I'm not here to encourage you to participate in today's event, I'm here to tell you a funny story and give you some encouragement FOR THE FUTURE.

One year during the Great American Smokeout, I had a group of smokers compete in "Drag Racing".  It was a simple concept, who every could smoke the most of a cigarette in one "drag" (puff) won a prize.  I thought it was hilarious.  The local American Cancer Society tried to get me fired for it.  It was ridiculous.  The point I was making (as an aside) then and the point I'm making now is, smokers will either quit or not in their own time.

You can't quit unless you really, really, really want to quit.  No organization, no person, no gross pictures, no health warning and no reward will help you quit.  You gotta want it.  For me, I got tired of cigarettes "bossing me around".  I literally got tired of being "told" by cigarettes, "it's time to stop what you're doing and have a smoke".  I quit in a rather unique way.  I switched to mini cigars.  You just can't smoke cigars the way you smoke cigarettes, but it takes care of a lot of the addictive properties of cigarettes.  After I was over to cigars completely, it was easy to drop them. These days you have "vaping" or e-cigs which I bet work a lot like cigars did for me.

Anyways, quitting cigarettes may be the hardest thing you ever do in your life, so be prepared for a battle.  It's just not going to happen if you just wake up today and say "I'm not smoking today".  Get your ducks in a row. Get some help.  And good luck to you.