Something happens to somebody you know and suddenly the realisation of the harmful effects of smoking hits you like a falling watermelon.

 

Dear Old Uncle smoked just a bit; a few in the morning, a couple during lunch, half a pack for tea and a handful after dinner. Stage four lung cancer … shocking, really. He wasn’t even that old, under the heavy wrinkles.

 

Taking deep drags of your favourite menthols while digesting the news just seems a bit odd given the perceived link between lung cancer and smoking.

 

Another puff and another … with ciggie still hanging from your blackened lips, a sudden and emotional urge to stop smoking. Then one more puff.

 

Now, let’s be practical. From a pack a day to a complete stop in a blink of an eye? No wonder the final puff just because it was the natural thing to do closing in on the stub.

 

So if quitting smoking the old fashioned cold turkey way won’t work, what will?

 

That perhaps would be to cut down. You know, from 20 down to, oh I don’t know, perhaps half? Simple (and perhaps misinformed) probability would mean that you’d end up with lung at 50 rather than at 40 as you would have, burning a pack a day.

 

Doesn’t seem like so big a jump now, does it? Besides, under-promise over-deliver makes for such a sweeter case than over-promise under-deliver. Soon you will find out that you don’t really want 10 and can live with less.

 

Ridiculous, you say? Hmmm … OK then, the next time you want to smoke, just ask yourself ‘do I really want this?’ Perhaps the answer is ‘No, not yet’. But if the answer is ‘Yes’, then ask yourself another question, ‘do I really want this NOW?’

 

These are the few times in life that procrastination is good. Let’s call it the Procrastination Method then, shall we?

 

Apart from that, set a few simple rules to help you cope … such as, no smoking before lunch, while taking a dump or while driving. For heavens sake, stop lugging your cigarettes around in your pocket. Habitual smoking may indeed be more different than an addiction than you might think.

 

I don’t care about the nay-sayers who preach that if you smoke one stick, you’d better swallow a chimney. Neither should you. One stick less is better than one stick more. That should be your mantra.

 

Perhaps one day smoking for you will be a thing of the past. Perhaps not. As they say, different strokes for different folks.

 

But it doesn’t matter what they think … what I think … what anyone else thinks. What do you think?

 

 

Note: The author decided on a whim that smoking less than 5 ciggies a day would quite simply allow him to live just that much longer compared to knocking back a pack by dinnertime ... and that was a month ago, and so far so good.