Day 31: Know Thyself

I'm starting to feel more confident about quitting... I just hit my 1 month goal! I have to admit, however, that I cheated a couple times -- I didn't buy a pack, or anything so drastic, but I did bum a ciggie on two separate occasions while out drinking with friends. Slipping up is part of the healing process, though, and I still need to stay positive about where I have succeeded:

• 466 cigarettes avoided.
• $171.26 saved.

Not too shabby, huh?
There is an ancient Greek saying -- "γνῶθι σεαυτόν gnōthi seauton", or "Know Thyself" -- which comes to mind whenever I screw something up in my life. It reminds me that we're all human and everyone makes mistakes, but in order to learn and overcome making the same mistake again it's important to recognize and evaluate what caused that mistake in the first place. Know thyself, in this case = Know thy triggers.

Alcohol is one of my triggers... it's the devil. Whenever I drink, my cravings for a cigarette go buck-wild. Caffeine is another trigger... for some reason I've got it in my head that nothing goes better with coffee than a cigarette. I have other (less severe) triggers like boredom, driving, stress -- but I find those to be much more manageable.

It takes time and perseverance to overcome triggers, but the job is half done once you can identify what they are. I'm glad I know of the big two... it helps me to resist. So far, only alcohol has gotten the best of me -- my willpower has been strong enough to resist the urge to smoke with coffee. So, now I need to focus more on the alcohol trigger. Hopefully, next time I post I'll be able to say with confidence that alcohol has not gotten the best of me where smoking is concerned.

In the words of Alfred Pennyworth (Batman Begins), "Why do we fall, sir? So that we might better learn to pick ourselves up."