This is one case wherein quitters can win.

I quit smoking 4 weeks ago. It was very hard as it has been something I’ve been doing half my life.  I started young… very young. Cigarettes had been with me in every milestone in my life: my graduation day, my first job, my first promotion, my greatest idea, my time as a bum, my time as a workaholic, my most depressing heartbreak, my happiest moment of being in love…

If my cigarettes were video cams, I’d have my biography ready to be edited.

Most call center professionals have the same nasty habit I’ve had all those years. I completely understand since a call center job can be very stressful that smoking during your 15-minute break is the only leisure time you have. There was even I time that I’d chain-smoke during lunch because eating would just make me sleepy. Now that I’m broke the habit it seems so scary to go back as there’s already a lot of health hazards when you work at night.

What did I do to quit? Nothing much really. I just woke up one day I as if someone had brainwashed me to stop smoking.

One client told me once:

“You don’t really quit smoking, you just decide to stop for awhile and its up to you if you really want to do it again. I decided to stop 15 years ago and never had a puff since then.”

So how am I now you might ask? Well, I’m breaking out a little bit, gained weight and sometimes irritable… But I sleep longer, relax more, and feel so much better since.