Quitting a behavior is difficult. It's not like other endeavors, like learning to play the piano, where the more you think about piano, the better you get at it. Quitting is the opposite. The more you think about quitting and the logistics of staying "quit", the higher the likelihood of returning to the thing you quit. At least this has been my experience.
The three best tools I've found in quitting are distraction, rules, and substitution. I list those in order of effectiveness and least amount of harm
The easiest one to grasp is substitution. Trouble quitting smoking? Try gum instead! This is a superficial fix, from a behavior standpoint, and doesn't make you any less of an addict. The replacement can end up backfiring and provide you with another thing that leads you to your addiction:
"Oh man. You know what gum reminds me of? Smoking! Anybody have a cigarette?"
And sometimes you end up leaning heavily on other addictions and for me, it was alcohol. I believe I drink more now because of how I dealt with quitting smoking. But substitution is very helpful if you're main motive behind quitting is to get rid of a detrimental effect, with smoking being the most obvious example.
Rules are great if you have an enforcer. For some folks, they can stand in as their own enforcer. I unfortunately cannot. At least not once I've made a small infraction. And I tend to set some harsh rules so once one gets bent it may as well be broken and then all hell can break loose. I could spend nearly a whole day fasting from junk food, then eat one gummi bear and I'll eat seven hot dogs. It's gotten that extreme with the daily fasts. That's why you have to be a friggin lawyer about your rule setting or else you're bound to find your own loopholes. Adaptability is key.
I'll talk about distraction once I stop sneezing. It's the only thing I can concentrate on in this moment so I can't be bothered with much else.
The three best tools I've found in quitting are distraction, rules, and substitution. I list those in order of effectiveness and least amount of harm
The easiest one to grasp is substitution. Trouble quitting smoking? Try gum instead! This is a superficial fix, from a behavior standpoint, and doesn't make you any less of an addict. The replacement can end up backfiring and provide you with another thing that leads you to your addiction:
"Oh man. You know what gum reminds me of? Smoking! Anybody have a cigarette?"
And sometimes you end up leaning heavily on other addictions and for me, it was alcohol. I believe I drink more now because of how I dealt with quitting smoking. But substitution is very helpful if you're main motive behind quitting is to get rid of a detrimental effect, with smoking being the most obvious example.
Rules are great if you have an enforcer. For some folks, they can stand in as their own enforcer. I unfortunately cannot. At least not once I've made a small infraction. And I tend to set some harsh rules so once one gets bent it may as well be broken and then all hell can break loose. I could spend nearly a whole day fasting from junk food, then eat one gummi bear and I'll eat seven hot dogs. It's gotten that extreme with the daily fasts. That's why you have to be a friggin lawyer about your rule setting or else you're bound to find your own loopholes. Adaptability is key.
I'll talk about distraction once I stop sneezing. It's the only thing I can concentrate on in this moment so I can't be bothered with much else.
Haiku of the Day:
Kuehn left to run the
Baltimore Half-Marathon.
I'm so proud of her!
Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Forswear" from MW's word of the day. It means to reject, deny or renounce under oath. Or to renounce something earnestly. Like "I forswear Arby's after the terrible Cheese Incident of 2007")
Today's "365" Project (Do something in the dirt. Wait...really? Well I guess if you have to make up 365 of these suckers, they're not all going to be winners.)
"Dowsing Rod Root I Saw and Dug Up Three Blocks From My Apartment at 2:30 in the Morning"
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"Dowsing Rod Root I Saw and Dug Up Three Blocks From My Apartment at 2:30 in the Morning"
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