Imagine, if you will, being able to give up the one thing you hate about yourself. It’s that one thing that makes you feel bad every morning when you wake up, that makes you retch every time you look in the mirror, that makes you have to hide your habit, or wear long sleeves, or apologize for the gazillionth time.
Imagine that you give it up and you manage to stay stopped — for a week, two weeks, a month, a year, five years! You tried before. Oh, how you tried, but you always went back. Back to smoking, back to drinking, back to being late or back to being overweight. But this time, you won. And you have the pleasure of being free of that one thing for as long as you care to hang with it. Is there any better feeling? So if you can stop one thing, can’t you stop any bad habit? Why of course. And that’s the best part. It’s so awesome! If you can change one big disgusting, remorseful, degrading habit, can’t you change others? Of course. And so it makes all the sense… do it and be free. Free of the one thing, but free to have the ability to do anything you want. That is power. Knowing. That. You. Can. Do. It. That is happiness.
So why is it so hard when the payoff is so great? Why don’t more people stop that bad habit, the addiction, that sorrowful trap of darkness and powerlessness? Why? Because it’s scary. We don’t know how our life will be, how we will cope without the crutch, the safety net, the blanket of protection from the buffeting winds of life. Which is why giving up that one thing that you cannot is the one thing you must. It paves the way for a new life of confidence, freedom, blue sky and light.
It takes grit. Determination. Courage. A pause. It’s the pause of consciousness — extreme consciousness— right before the slip that picks up the first brownie, drink or hit. They say, “Don’t pick up that first time.” They — the royal, knowing they — are right. The slope is slippery, dang slippery. And they have been there and know the perils.
Adopting the new you is the hardest part. Saying goodbye to that other person — that old, familiar you — and welcoming a new partner in a new crime is difficult. It’s a crime as old as time, as wide as a mile, and as deep as the deepest well. It’s the crime of change. It’s a killer. It only gets done if it gets done. Talking about it and thinking about it will not make it so. Doing is the way. The only way.
Quitting your old self and adopting your new self will let you discover and enjoy the person you were put on this earth to be. Now quit, while you’re ahead, and if you are successful, give yourself a psychic pat on the back.
If you screw it up, It’s okay. Keep trying. Keep believing you can do it. It’s totally worth it.
