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Every time I had thought about quitting smoking before, I had considered that I was in some way losing something, that life was going to be the same as it was but without the cigarettes.

Certainly, that’s one way to look at it. But I’d never once considered that it’s possible to see the situation round the other way. That you’re not giving up or quitting something – rather, that you’re going back to the way things should be.

Apple’s grammatically incorrect slogan sums it up for me – it’s a question of thinking differently: quitting smoking is to smokers as quitting prison is to inmates.

Absurd as that might sound, it’s not too bad as an analogy. Smoking is a prison of the smoker’s own making – the reason the smoker is in the slammer is because he/she was caught by the addiction. Smoking cigarettes is the sentence you serve when you’re caught. But the big difference? The smoker decides their own release date!

Some re-offend within the first week of being released. Some within a few months. Others were inside for so long that life on the outside is just too alien – they actually want to go back to what they know, what’s comfortable – back ‘inside’.

Me? I’m glad to be out. As I understand it (I haven’t read it myself yet), this is one of the ideas that is presented and constantly reinforced in Allen Carr’s famous book: The Easy Way to Stop Smoking. For the cost of a few packs of cigarettes, the investment in this particular book might not be such a bad idea.

It might teach me to think even more different – and stay on the straight and narra’.

For those of you that haven’t discovered 43things.com – check it out. It’s a little more than just another one of those new fangled Web 2.0-y sites to keep up with. You know the kind of thing I’m talking about: since you last logged on, who has superpoked you / round-house kicked your friends / trout-slapped their cat / uploaded pictures of what happened last night (reality check: we were all there – we know what happened!) / twittered / tweeted each other etc.

43things consists of micro-communities of people with the same goal – you can “cheer” each other, leave comments, get advice from those who have achieved the goal – and, of course (the real purpose of the site), click on the targeted pay-per-click adverts which appear alongside each entry.

Of the few of my selected goals, quit smoking is the one I check in on pretty much every day. Most people on there do a daily update – just little random story-ettes like “just stuck a new patch on my patch-arm” or “wanted a smoke pretty bad while I was on the can this morning”.

But I was on there today and noticed that there was someone in my 6529-strong quit smoking group who had as one of their accomplished goals (I’m not kidding here): to start smoking.

Start smoking? A life goal? Just out of curiosity, I went to take a look – I was astounded to find there is a 260-something strong contingent of people who are of a like mind. People who are wanting to start smoking and are asking for advice such as “what brand should I smoke?”, “how many should I aim to smoke a day to start with?”

I was just about to lay into some of these people, but then I thought: “you know what – I can’t”. They are no more likely to listen to me – listen to anyone - as I was when I was in the same position. If you tell someone not to do something, they’re a lot more likely to go and do it out of defiance, intrigue, curiosity – whatever.

And the opposite is plain irresponsible (there are actually people on there encouraging non-smokers to smoke – that’s just wrong, imho).

So – what do you do? I struggled with it for a while. Some of these I-think-I-wanna-smokers have even educated themselves pretty well on the risks and the downsides to smoking and want to do it anyway. It doesn’t seem like they can be stopped. Especially as they have already taken the step to publicly announce their stated goal on a goal-oriented website: that they want to start smoking.

All I would say or advise would be this: don’t see it as starting smoking. See it as making a conscious decision to take on an addiction that is extremely hard to get rid of. An addition from which some (in fact: most) people just cannot stand the pain of withdrawal and are unable to shake. Don’t for one minute believe that you will not get addicted. Slowly but surely you will – and by that time it’s too late. If that’s really what you want - if that’s your goal - you know what … I’d do Camel Lights. I liked them.

I don’t mean all the usual stuff: it’s bad for your lungs, it stunts your growth, it gives you gangrenous extremities. We all know that.

What I was wondering as I was struggling very hard with day 9, was “is there anything that I learned from smoking that I might otherwise not have learned?” In other words, is there anything positive that I can take away from years of something which is almost always portrayed in a negative way?

Now, don’t get me wrong. Anything I do present here should by no means be seen as a reason for a non-smoker to go out and buy a carton of Camel Lights in the quest of these things – far from it. But, being fairly optimistic about everything – there’s got to have been something that was of some use to me:

1. Time Management

Smokers are excellent at managing their time. Or, I should say: excellent at managing their time around their smoking. No matter how busy they are, how many projects are late or approaching their deadline, how late they are to pick up the kids/meet the wife/be on-time for the appointment – there’s always a few minutes for a cigarette.

Let’s just say 3 minutes for each cigarette (to get to where it’s going to be smoked, to light it, smoke it, then go back to where you started). Pack a day. That’s a whole hour per day, every day, that has been set aside purely to appease the nicodemon.

OK – so no more smoking … what to do with that extra time? There’s got to be something else extremely important that needs doing – maybe not 20 times a day.

2. Financial planning

Takes a lot of dedicated cash juggling to always have enough money on you to buy the next pack/carton of cigarettes.

A smoker’s train of thought …

If I go out and buy the sandwich for lunch first, then I won’t have enough cash left to buy the pack of cigarettes on the way back to the office. And I don’t think I’ve got enough to get through the afternoon. Doesn’t matter that it’s raining – I’ll go to the bank first – get more cash out (I’ll have a smoke on the way – yeah!), then I’ll buy a pack of cigarettes on the way to the sandwich shop – that way the sandwich will still be hot by the time I get back and I won’t risk having to stand in line at the cigarette stand.

Bit short of cash at the end of the month? Use credit cards. Or don’t buy food or something. After all – the cigarettes are an absolute life necessity, aren’t they?

3. Prioritizing

The #1 priority for any smoker is the cigarettes. Number one. Nothing comes above it. The cat can wait to be fed. Those people that I invited out for a drink: they can wait. Those people in the meeting waiting for me? They can wait too.

4. Being extra good at socializing and breaking the ice

All smokers have an understanding among themselves that they are the nouveau lepers – the outcasts of the 21st century, and that they must stand together in the face of tuts, hard stares and disapproving looks from grannies with big handbags and women pushing babies through their downstream smoke.

Nowhere is this solidarity more prevalent than outside a bar. Anywhere else, you’re seen as a bit of a freak to go up to someone and say something ‘just coz’. But, because you’re out there smoking and they are too – there’s nothing wrong with a “how’s it going?” or “hey there – damn it’s almost too cold to smoke isn’t it?”. The latter generally gets a laugh and gets the conversation going. In fact, so good is this camaraderie between smokers, I’ve actually heard of single girls (and guys) taking up smoking, in order to have a greater shot at meeting someone outside.

In summary, yep – there are a few things – a few (albeit very tenuous) positives. Some aren’t even positives – they’re just downright selfish. Do they outweigh the negatives? Of course not. Could these things be learned elsewhere – some other way? Of course.

Got to keep thinking positive though!

One thing that definitely was not going to be happening during the ‘quit’ was any less time out and about if you get my drift.

It’s said that alcohol actually helps metabolize nicotine out of your body faster (this is one of the reasons why smokers smoke way more when they’re out drinking – I know I did, that’s for sure). But once the nicotine was gone (after day 3) – it was back to the beer for pure enjoyment purposes – its beneficial medicinal qualities are no longer required.

A little too much enjoyment last evening. On a school night too. But, what the heck – it was fun to hang out with friends, and nowhere near as difficult being around smokers as I thought it was going to be. It was harder seeing others smoking last time I quit.

Just got to face facts: there’s smoking everywhere. You only notice it when you’re really looking for it. It’s a bit like the New Car syndrome – you buy a new Whatsit ZX200 GTi in a color you invented yourself it’s that rare, and then not one week after driving it off the lot, it seems that everyone’s got one.

OK, so those who want to quit smoking – why on earth would you trade “nicotine dependence at $5 per pack per day” for “nicotine dependence at $55 per pack per week”?

I’m talking, of course, about “The Patch”. I just don’t get it. As far as I’m concerned, the best thing you can do with these things is to stick them over your mouth so that you can’t get the cigarettes in.

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Quitting smoking has a couple of milestones. The first one (and by far the most painful) is getting over the withdrawal from nicotine. This milestone is just 3 days after the last cigarette – after that time, most of the nicotine has been metabolized out of the body.

The withdrawal pains are similar to the feelings of not having had a cigarette after a long flight for example – when all the smokers are clambering to get outside the terminal and take that first puff. Read more »

When you quit smoking, you’re constantly looking for reasons to back up your decision to quit. The nicodevil is constantly whispering into your ear: “Just one won’t hurt. Go on. Have a smoke. You’ve done well so far – you’ve earned one”

Here are some good reasons to ignore him. Pick the situation you’re happier with.

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Today is day #2 of not smoking. Again. I’ve done this many, many times and always gone back to it for one reason or another. Reason number one I suppose, is that I actually enjoy it. Read more »