What would you say, is quitting one of your bad habit/s that difficult?

Well, they say old habits die hard, Bang On. It is very true & correct. It is also true & correct that; bad habits can be given up but with great difficulty. Allow me to take you through my personal journey.

People always say that time is testing us, but we keep testing the time, time & again and try to see that whether time suits us or not. Rather, we should give way to time to test us in real sense, isn’t it??

I say this with much conviction now as I have seen during this trying times. This pandemic due to COVID19, time has really tested us, almost everyone & me.

While the world was reeling under tremendous pressure to find some solution & get relief from this pandemic, I too was undergoing equal amount of pressure from my family members to “QUIT SMOKING” as some where this was being one of the threat aspects (respiratory infection and affecting lungs) & a strong reason for people getting infected & affected more seriously.

My family members had witnessed this unsuccessful effort for the last three times and were really worried for my health. So, you all can well imagine the amount of pressure I was undergoing during the initial days of this pandemic and the sense of failure was looming large on my head as how to start this exercise of quitting again.

Initial 4-5 days during my sleeping time were beyond comprehension as I used to see some dreaded & irrelevant things in my dream. I wanted to share this experience with my family members but the very effect of any negative comments from them was haunting me high every time. Therefore, I decided not to share that but to fight it alone and come out victoriously.

However, the penultimate night I had thought that when I go to sleep, I would make up my mind & be prepared that come tomorrow morning, I would be a different person altogether “a smoke free man”. I was not feeling very confident because of my past attempts & subsequent failures. Still gathering courage, I thought to consult my family members one more time that evening, and I found them quite accommodating as well as very supportive as before, they strongly recommended that give it a last try this time and you would surely succeed.

Honestly, as luck would have it, the next day morning when I got up and my wife offered me a cup of tea, I did not step out to the balcony for a smoke rather struck to my promise of quitting by simply ignoring my thoughts strongly and started sharing dialogue with her related to the pandemic to draw my attention away from the smoke. The hours were passing by and there was an urge which was still kicking me to go for a smoke. Family members were going through tremendous pressure more than I, may be as this was the first day of my attempt which I was experiencing again. Some how the day passed by without holding a cigarette which was indicating that road to victory is just few steps ahead but with difficulties. I could manage to hold myself under control and did not discuss this matter further during the whole day if discussed this may lead to a trigger & the urge to smoke will surface again.???

Witnessing the experience of yesterday, when I got up the next day, I was feeling strong externally but internally was little nervous & shaken up whether I would be able to pull through this today again or not. But I followed the same path that of yesterday and stuck to it so that there is continuity to this exercise. Trust me, I could not really believe myself as the hours were passing by and I was not showing much inclination towards that stick (cigarette). The family members were whispering & murmuring within themselves about the days proceedings and were heaving a sigh of relief by such experience. After completing our dinner, when me & my wife were about to retire, my wife whispered in my ears that both of our sons were all praises for my efforts of last two days. They are very proud & confident that you will prove us right. Those words meant a lot to me and I gathered courage, strength to prove myself that I can do it.

Determination of achieving my target was becoming stronger & evident each passing day, but the urge was not slowing down as was the level of determination. But I had decided that may what come, I would prove to my family that I can “QUIT” & I will “QUIT”. I was just praying and keeping myself in control, trying to be composed & somehow cross at least 10 -12 days so that the urge of smoking should die down naturally. Finally, it did happen almost after 15 days of rigorous hard work, perseverance & with complete dedication.

Friends, it was 26th March 2020, when I seriously began this exercise out of compulsion by my family members because of this pandemic and today is 31st December 2020, I have not touched a single stick (cigarette) although I have been lured by many of my friends & colleagues to hold one with them during our various rendezvous, but my inner feeling & conscience has never given way to smoking till day.

Whatever you may call this, a mere fluke, luck by chance or because of the sincere valiant efforts put by my family members which were prime & of immense importance in accomplishing this huge task. It is because of them I could accomplish what I have today. I give full credit & feel proud for them for giving me this golden opportunity to “QUIT SMOKING” and I give myself a pat on the back for accomplishing this feat victoriously.

Today when I sit and look back, I feel so proud and would proudly like to share the same feeling with you all for a better tomorrow for self, for the society and for our Environment.

Should this story inspire you so much so that you may also like to venture out on this path of “QUITTING” at least one of the bad habit/s even if that is not Smoking, could be Alcohol addiction, Drug addiction, Racism, any sort of Discrimination or Bias, being a Religious zealot or could have been drifted towards Terrorism, but do take a pledge to “QUIT ONE FOR YOUR BETTERMENT” to make this World a better place to Live for yourself & others at large, Amen!

Cheers

#quitabadhabit #givebacktosocietybybeingagoodcitizen

NB: Please ignore & forgive me for the typo, grammatical mistakes, or mistakes of any other nature if any as I did not want to cease the flow of narration which I wanted to bring in front of you.