DIFFICULTY ... There is no free lunch. Anything worth having requires effort. And this is especially true of stopping smoking. To successfully control my addiction I need to accept moments of craving and make decisions to forego instant gratification for the greater long-term satisfaction. I need to spend time occasionally in conflict, thinking about what's important to me and what kind of life I want to have. I need to work at honesty and keep stopping smoking a high priority. If I don't bemoan the intrinsic difficult of stopping smoking--I can welcome it as a worthwhile task, freely chosen. Like almost anything important, stopping smoking involves difficulty. A lot of difficulty for a few days, less and less as time goes on. If I remember and expect this, I handle the difficulty well. It's when I want the whole problem to just be gone--when I want magic--that I get into trouble. I will try to remember that moments of difficulty are perfectly normal in stopping smoking, and take those moments in stride.
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