This is on topic because it’s Sheldon MF’in BROWN!
39 years since my last cigarette! I quit in 1968 by applying pure logic to the situation:
While there’s much about the addiction process that is obscure, one thing that is known for sure is that quitting smoking is harder the longer you have been a smoker.*
Looking into the future, I really couldn’t see myself still smoking in 1978, so I knew I would be quitting *sometime.
Given the above conditions, it will be easier to quit today (June 14, 1968) than tomorrow. I took the easy way out. *
Khai-I had to research Sheldon Brown. I was given 3 choices-artist, football player, and some nut bike mechanic with Igor on his head! The sad part was that I had NO doubt.
Logic was simple for me:
A pack of Marlboro= $7.99 Which made about $15-$18 per day (2 packs a day with tax)for me. It’s like a new Felt DA every year.
This couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. My cousin, who just graduated high school and thinks he’s badass (didn’t most of us think this…?), always has a cigarette in his hand. I’m going to send him this quote along with the reasoning of how much a pack costs nowadays. Already tried the health issues approach and nothing gets through his thick skull. When you are young, you think you can live forever…
i have no understanding of how logic can be used to beat addiction… my hat’s off to this “nut bike mechanic with Igor on his head!”,
i do subscribe to the “no better time than now” philosophy though,
only took me ~250 attempts and countless boxes of nicoderm cq, nicorette, and the inhaler thingies to finally be successful- (god willingly),
quitting is easy, staying stopped is a different story though,
props to mr brown for finding the most straight forward way,
7 to 8 years tobacco free,
former 2 to 3 pack-a-day smoker,
oh, i see now,
khai’s quote said, “i applied pure logic to the situation”,
my problem was that my addictions always turned my “pure logic” into just plain jane “logic”,
my statement about how this could only be possible from a “nut bike mechanic with Igor on his head!” still stands,
.
I had a friend who is in AA. She was telling a story about someone going off the wagon and then came back to AA. She turned to me and said “I just don’t know how many ‘quits’ I have in my body” This put it all in perspective for me as one really never knows how many quits are in there.
Sorry, but I don’t think that will work. I read in either “BLINK” or “FREAKENOMICS” that it’s not SMOKING that’s cool it’s that COOL people smoke. Very interesting. the problem comes when you change the “cool” now you’re addicted.
I smoked 2 packs a day from age 14 until age 18. Yes, 2 packs a day while in high school. Now, I’m the only member of my immediate family that doesn’t smoke. I’m also the only one that has a college degree if that puts things into perspective.
Unfortunately, my case isn’t the norm. For your cousin, he’ll quit when he wants to quit. Very rarely can someone make someone else do something. The person with the problem or bad habit must want to change on their own.
I live in France. Here FAT is totally uncool and smoking is a way to stay thin. All those other issues are ignored. Just as Americans grimace and look disapproving at smokers the same is done with fat people here. It is seen as lacking in self respect and self control. It really is amazing the paralells between the two.
Well, at least when you are eating there is really something to enjoy-taste, texture, chewing, the beauty of the food but with smoking there is nothing but a lung full of burning toxic air. I find it so very sad that I can not look at them.
I work in the hub of the 4th biggest financial centre of the world , Singapore.
There are roughly 75 buildings exceeding 30 stories , about 10 exceeding 40 and 3 or 4 exceeding 60 within 1 km either way.
My point being , there’s a lot of people in this area. Although smoking laws are strict , you still get the “chimneys” puffing away at the base of buildings around communal ashtrays.
I find I literally have to walk zig-zag at times to avoid the smokers.
Not to hold anything against smokers , but if I start a business , I will not hire a smoker. They work 50mins on the hour in my company , actually make that 47 or 48 probabaly with the lift trip of 41 floors up and down. The eventual “proven” medical problems associated with smoking and their lack of self-discipline / respect.
*