Then one day you can say "a" cigarette instead of "my" cigarette. Another first. Then one day you ask for the Non-smoking section of a restaurant and mean it in your heart. Cause you really do not want to smell that smoke from the table next to you. It's not that you believe the smoke won't travel to you eventually, but you just don't want it next to you.
Then one day you do something else and recognize it as another "first." Another milestone has passed in your journey. That's how you do it. You keep going ... you just keep on moving forward one day at a time. And you keep adding up those milestones and those "first times" and those new feelings that become more and more familiar.
One day you have passed so many milestones that you don't hardly know how to get back. That's good. You don't want to go back. You always want to look forward in your life to something better ahead. Please try and remember that thought when you are whining and crying for yesterday. You don't want it back! You need to look forward to tomorrow.
And know something else - those milestones you are passing are important. It is important to note them as you go. It is important to recognize how far you have traveled and how well you have managed. It is also important to rest for a minute on a bench and glance back there and reflect on it. Learn from yesterday's mistakes and take new meaning into tomorrow.
I have learned from this quit. I have learned how to reshape my world. You had it in your hand all along. All you had to do was have faith in yourself. And if you slip (like many of you have) ... please please please don't run back to your beginning as fast as you can. Please stop and look around and take a minute to ask yourself where you are going. Please don't run as fast as you can back to the safety of your old life.
It can be a familar place here too. It can feel like home. It can be as good or better than your old life. It can have more than the pain you're feeling and the anger you're experiencing. It can and it will be a wonderful new place to live. Just keep moving past those milestones, one at a time, until you are so far away from your old life that you can't go back.
Reminds me of pitching the tent at the campsite. You are standing there looking at a bare piece of land. Then you move in. You walk around and kick the stones out of the way and settle in. That's what you are going to do with your new life. And one day you'll feel real comfortable right where you are. Just keep going!
