Defying Temptation – Never Easy, But Worthwhile

When you are trying to break your addition to nicotine, you will find that there is always temptation waiting for you somewhere or other. It may be that you start to really crave a cigarette because you saw someone on TV smoking and they looked like they were really enjoying it. It may be that you have been hanging out with friends and some of them haven’t given up yet. It can even be something as simple as sense memory – you’re listening to an old CD and it takes you back to a time when you were smoking a lot and enjoying yourself.

Temptation is an unforgiving mistress. As Oscar Wilde once said: “I can resist everything but temptation”. The really unfair thing about it is that it’s not a case of overcoming it and forgetting it – temptation will return time and again, and you will have to keep winning the battle with it. It would be easier if there were some kind of reward system – you don’t smoke for a week, you get a wide screen TV, or something. But this isn’t how it works. If it did, we’d all give up for a week, get our TV and start smoking again.

If you’re a competitive person, then you might consider temptation to be your opponent. You’re not going to let the cravings beat you, are you? Hit them out of the park and congratulate yourself on a job well done. Or if you are not, think about it in another way – overcoming cravings will give you a stronger will and make it easier to overcome other challenges in the future.