Unexpected Symptoms

[Steve Anderson]

And, it'll be so easy for me to beat you if you keep smoking.

[Chris Keen]

And, it'll be so easy for me to beat you if you keep smoking.

Yeah ...... You wish!

[Flexmoney]

Chris, what does a pack cost? Like $5.

You know what would be cool. Get a big glass jar and stick a $5 bill in it every f*#king day.

You know what would be REALLY cool. Once a month...say, maybe...1st Saturdays...pull $10 out of the jar and buy me beer!

At the end of a year, you will have 1.7 grand, and I will have free beer.

The awesomeness of this plan is truly epic!!! Truly. Epic.

[Chris Keen]

$5.50 ...... roughly.

You know what would be REALLY, REALLY cool. Once a month...say, maybe...1st Saturdays...I'll pull $10 out of the jar and buy you A beer, and you pull $15 out of the PCSI jar and let me shoot Open beat Anderson for FREE!!!

Edited February 8, 2012 by Chris Keen

[carlosa]

January first was my last day as a smoker.

It's a very dumb habit that I picked up during the most stressful time of my life.

I always loved to smoke, but I hated being a smoker. I especially hated being a semi-professional athlete smoker. That's even dumber.

The main reason I decided to quit?

There was a young man, a boy really, at the Indiana production match that seemed very interested in the fact that I was an open grand master. (I wasn't shooting very well and Flex was shooting rings around me, so why he cared about me I do not know)

He was/is very new to the sport and doing very well, and as such was getting lots and lots of very well intentioned advice from everyone in sight.

As is the case with well intentioned advice, a lot of it was h@rsesh#t.

I pulled him aside and urged him to be careful who he listens to, and explained my aforementioned theory on well-intentioned advice, minus I think, the word "h@rsesh#t."

Now, of all of the smart people he listens to, why would he listen to the dumbass smoking the cigarette?

So, for that and all of the other good reasons, I quit smoking January 1st.

The physical stuff has been easy, believe it or not. I don't really miss them, and I don't have an active desire to set a piece of paper and leaves on fire and stick it in my mouth, so that's not a problem.

But I sure wish my brain would start working again. The fog is lifting, but it's still there.

And, I never expected depression, either. That part really sucks.

The good news is this: I'm probably not going insane. At least that's the conclusion I've come to after reading a bunch about nicotine and subsequent withdrawal. Believe it or not, the brain actually misses either the habit or the chemical enough that it goes through a mourning process. Crazy.

Crazy?

I guess we'll see.

Thanks for listening.

Steve this is fantastic news..

while i have not accomplished nearly as much as you have, there have been quite a few post of yours that i relate to in a very personal level. i think my journey to become a better shooter has taken me in directions that you have already been through, and sometimes your words make me realize that my experience in not unique to me (which makes me feel both somewhat sane and also like i might not be to far from where i want to be )

anyway it's funny that you post this, seance i too have struggled with smocking for most of my life.. and the more my skill seem to Plato the more i feel that bettering my physical shape will allow me to push through and get to the next level.. I know that smocking directly affects my performance (at my first area 2 i smoked so much i had the jitters the whole match, and could not focus on shooting), still i have not been to completely kick the habit..

the worst part is.. that at the range is where the temptation to "bum" a cigarette it's at it's highest..

you won't believe that in all this time it had never occurred to me to look up the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal..

and strangely enough now that i think of it, I've always picked up the habit during times when i felt somewhat depressed..

anyway i think what your doing is great, i wish you good luck. while i have managed to minimize my smocking to just smocking other people's cigarettes i hope that like you i can soon kick the habit all together.

by the way.. i would love to hear your affirmation about listening to other people's advice sometime!

take care brother,

cheers,

Los.

[Flexmoney]

Joking aside...

That's what I need help with..... The *immediate* results. Same thing goes for exercise, among other things. I am NOT a very patient person.

Everybody's different. For me, I really would get a big glass jar and pick a time each day to put a $5 bill in it. That thing would fill up quick! After 21 days (a commonly given time line for building a new habit) there would be over $100 in there. For me, it would be a great mental cue. It is visual. Talk about "pay value"...it is freakin CA$H !!! It stands as a measurement*.

Hmmm...this has got me thinking...

*Our division Prez has a good saying, "what gets measured, gets done."

[E K]

Chris, what does a pack cost? Like $5.

You know what would be cool. Get a big glass jar and stick a $5 bill in it every f*#king day.

You know what would be REALLY cool. Once a month...say, maybe...1st Saturdays...pull $10 out of the jar and buy me beer!

At the end of a year, you will have 1.7 grand, and I will have free beer.

The awesomeness of this plan is truly epic!!! Truly. Epic.

That pays for a lot of shooting!

[E K]

Steve & Chris,

Best of Luck. I know you can beat this.