A little bit of exploration using the First and/or Previous, Next, Last controls will yield a post where Joel relates the origin of this powerful story. (I could link it here but most times the search itself yields additional treasure . Oftentimes it is the journey that is as much the joy as reaching the destinationimage)
image What the 'planning for the next dose' theme of this 'Joel Classic' shows is not that we chose to 'punctuate our every action' but that the two hour half-life of nicotine in our blood serum became the control mechanism that drove our every thought, every action, every plan while we were still using nicotine to maintain our dependency.
We never inhaled the smoke of burning tobacco because we wanted to (although that's what we told ourselves) we did it on a very regular basis because we had to. We didn't smoke because we liked to ....we continued to ingest nicotine by any means available because we didn't like what happened when we were not able to replenish our constantly dwindling reserves - the almost immediate onset of withdrawal anxiety. The fear that life would fovever be racked with that (as it turns out very temporary) intense feeling of withdrawal anxiety is what kept so many of us trapped on the incessant 'paupers wheel' of addiction servicing.
Only after we pledge to permanently bar nicotine re-entry to our blood stream and brain and then pay the 72-hour deposit on our future of freedom do we see that getting rid of nicotine brings an unexpected and mostly underappreciated reward - absolute and unending freedom to live our lives free of the constant demands of an all-consuming chemical dependency.
image Simply Not Another Puff.......and live free as we were always meant to live.
JoeJ Free a nicotine addict and now an ex-smoker for 2 years, 10 months, 4 days, 2 hours, 39 minutes and 14 seconds (1038 days).
I've not had to buy & consume 25953 Nicotine delivery sticks, and saved $5,689.35.
I've reclaimed 90 days, 2 hours and 43 minutes to live as I Choose, that's the best part of my gift to me.image