26 Years and Counting…

As I was walking around the apartment complex this morning, I saw a young man walking his dog and smoking his morning cigarette. I was compelled to ask him as to what made him to start smoking.

He sheepishly said that he started when he was young(er) because he was hanging around with the wrong crowd.

So, I asked him, “Is that a valid reason to continue?” He agreed that it was not, and said he knows he needs to quit.

I love it when people tell me they need to quit smoking. What they’re really saying is, “I know what I am doing is really dumb, but I WANT to continue doing it.”

You see, people ALWAYS do what they WANT to do, and very seldom, if ever do what they NEED to do. Now, I am not saying that people don’t do what needs to be done. What I am saying is that people don’t put in conscious effort into doing what they NEED to do, because, we are genetically wired to know that all needs are always taken care of by nature.

So we don’t really make an effort to do what we need to do, and work hard at doing what we want to do, even when we know that what we want is not good for us and we don’t REALLY want it.

How do I know this? I switched from needing to quit, to wanting to quit 26 years ago this month, and I have not wanted to smoke ever since then. No desire to smoke, whatsoever.

This got me thinking. If I can quit smoking and drinking … just like that, what else can I accomplish in my life?

Oh, the places you will go.