The new year has lost its freshness. Those resolutions made in January, aimed at enhancing your health, finances, relationships, career, and other significant aspects of life, have largely been discarded. They’ve faded from memory.
You might have put in some effort to adhere to your self-improvement goals, but let’s be honest — it was a brief and tiring endeavor, wasn’t it? Perhaps it’s time to take the rest of the year off. After all, change takes time. Making too many adjustments at once tends to backfire. Slow progress is preferable to stagnation, along with all the little fabrications you tell yourself to stay grounded.
Nonetheless, there’s nothing comforting about continuing to smoke. A grim future looms over you and your loved ones. Deep down, you are aware of this truth, likely avoiding any online searches for “is lung cancer treatable?” (hint: only if fortune favors you).
Let’s dive in without holding back.
If you’re a smoker, you truly reek. Your living space reeks. Your clothing reeks. Your vehicle reeks. You may not notice it anymore, as you’ve become accustomed to the smell, but if you think that chewing gum and spritzing on some perfume or cologne will mask it, you’re deluding yourself.
Moreover, your aged skin might resemble that of someone who spent a year lost at sea, your teeth are likely a dismal yellowish-brown, leading observers to assume you’ve been munching on peculiar detritus found on the forest floor, and your stained fingers seem more fitting for a low-wage worker from the industrial age than for today’s office professional.
In short, it’s nearly impossible to tell whether smokers are more unpleasant to look at or to smell. This isn’t a way to live.
The medical implications
Men facing erectile dysfunction and women suffering ectopic pregnancies should find ample reason to quit. And why stop there? Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. One in five heart disease sufferers wouldn’t have encountered issues had they not smoked. Additionally, there are risks of throat cancer, tongue cancer, hypertension, and narrowed arteries.
Yet, here’s the reality: despite all these dangers, your body battles to keep you alive. Smoking won’t do you in overnight. Instead, it paves the way for a slow and distressing decline, lingering for months or even years until you reach a bleak and gasping demise. Certainly not the grand exit you deserve.
Consider taking the plunge and going cold turkey. Forget about all the support systems and quitting strategies. Just try going cold turkey and see if you can pull it off. Summon every ounce of willpower. Take action. Stay alive. It just might succeed.
