Here is some motivation for you. This story is 100% true.
I've known "Thomas" (not his real name) since I was in the 8th grade. He and my father worked together and his family lived down the street from mine. His son and daughter and my sister and I all went to the same junior high and high schools. His son was my best friend and best man at my wedding, and I took his daughter to her senior prom. Our families have been close for decades. My parents moved away after I graduated from high school, but when I came back to town (which was often), I always had a meal and a place to spend the night.
Years later, I joined the organization and Thomas ended up being my deputy. We had a very close relationship both in the unit and in our personal lives. Thomas and his wife were our "emergency contacts" for our children, etc. The relationship that Thomas had with his wife was what I tried to pattern my own marriage after.
The problem was, Thomas had (probably still has) a several-packs-a-day smoking habit for as long as I have known him. His daughter called my wife a little while ago to tell us that Thomas is in the hospital and is going to die of cancer. It has progressed so far now that it probably only has a few weeks to live. I don't have to be a doctor to be 100% confident it is smoking-related.
Thomas is leaving his wife, his two children, five grandchildren, the organization he worked for for all these years, and all of the rest of us because he couldn't. stop. smoking. It took over his life and now it will kill him. Smoking doesn't kill everyone, but it is going to kill Thomas. In college I visited my paternal grandfather in the hospital days before he died of smoking-induced emphysema. It was terrible. My maternal grandfather, a non-smoker, lived another twenty + years and died at the age of 93.
I know it's not a rational thing, but I'm pissed off at Thomas for choosing cigarettes over all of us. Other than smoking, he kept himself in pretty good health and probably would have lived another 10, 15, 20 years. Now he's going to be gone.
Stop smoking. Do it now. Do it for yourself, for your family, for your unit... for everything that matters to you. Don't "try," don't do it later, quit right now. Throw away every cigarette you have and never buy another one. Be stronger than your addiction, and live to be there for the people who love you. I know it's not easy, but it can be done. What is more important to you?
