5 years as a non-smoker

On August 31, 2009 I was down to my final 2 cigarettes and on my way to the local tobacco shop to buy another carton of cigarettes – $42 at the time – when it dawned on me that I would be blowing my monthly budget on the final day of the month… on cigarettes! That irritated me more than you could imagine so I turned around with the idea of, “I will just stop smoking then”.

I knew it was an empty threat. How? Because I knew I would not make that promise to my 11-year old son. As long as I dodged that promise I would always have a way out of quitting. So, I went home and gave him my final 2 cigarettes and simply said, “I will not smoke again”. I am not the kind of guy to break a promise to my own son so from that point on I was a non-smoker, no arguments about it.

I had quit smoking that easy, and I bought the van a few months later… replacing one addiction with another.