Addict

An SMS dialogue last night, with one of the cycling buddy here in JB;

HIM: “Kayoh?” (He’s already at the usual meeting point)
ME: ”Ramai ke turun? Aku mcm kureng la mlm ni.. Sapa lagi turun?”
HIM: ”Tkde sape. Lg 10 min kalo tkde org, aku balek.”
ME: ”Sorry bro, aku terkena penyakit malas la mlm ni…”

Yes, I was that lazy to go out and cycle last night. On Tuesday night, I initially had the plan to cycle on the trainer after terawih, but I ended up doing nothing at all.

So last night, in order not to surrender myself to the ‘M’ bug, I hooked up my bike on the trainer and started spinning for a good 1hr 15min.

Well, it was not as good as I expected. I didn’t sweat as much as I normally do. I have no idea why. But it felt weird not to sweat much where I normally would be wetting the floor after the workout. Maybe because of the cool weather (it was raining earlier).

Last week Friday – no training.
The whole Merdeka weekend – no training either. I didn’t count the shopping time I spent as a training OK.

So, only after 5 days of not doing any training, I felt fidgety. To be honest, I even dreamt of doing a triathlon race one of the nights. I thought it was a nightmare!

Is this what people say, addicted to sports?

I hope yes. And I hope it will do good to me.

The question is, does the addiction to sports same as addiction to smoking?

No, I don’t smoke. But I sometimes wonder why people started smoking, and continued smoking. Here are some of what I can randomly think at this moment.

Some boys may have started ‘learning’ how to smoke during school time. Perhaps as early as 12 or 15 years old? But, why?

- To look cool among peers who also smoke? Following ‘trend’?
- To have a taste of being an ‘adult’?
- To ‘try’?

And lately, I see lots of females also join the smoking community. Mainly those young and outgoing ones, not forgetting some university students may also have started smoking nowadays. And again, why?

- To follow the current ‘trend’ where urban girls should smoke to look cool within the society?
- To ‘try’?
- I can’t think of anything else…

My wife (she’s in bio-medic background) once told me that a lady, even though not smoking, is already prone to lots of natural diseases. Smoking will just attract the diseases to go to them even faster, unknowingly to them of course.

If we ask those who smoke on the reasons why they smoke, we’ll be hearing reasons like these:

”If I don’t smoke aah, my brain not working leh. Sure cannot think one!”

“Hey, my father smokes. My brothers also smoke. So, why can’t I smoke? If my cat knows how to smoke aah, sure it also smoke you know.”

“Come on la, you are a sissy la if you don’t smoke, you know?”

“Why you bother? I buy cigs with my money, not your money. And it’s my lungs la, not yours”

Yes, people are free to give whatever responses they wanted to. Mainly they will turn into a self defense mode, and come out with whatever logics that are on their sides. Let’s not judge them yet.

Anyway, it’s too bad. Bad for their own body and health, and to others too.

I know, smoking is addictive (from reading). It’s the nicotine inside it. I don’t know how addictive it is in the real smoking situation, and I may not be able to even imagine it. But my interest is on how one can change the habit, or ‘kill’ the addiction.

For me, I think, everything is inside the brain. It’s the mind who will have the final say.

Like in doing triathlon or other multisports, from nothing, we started off with having the mindset (to do it), and proceeded with some actions (training continuously), and finally we’ll feel the beauty and sensation of crossing the finishing line, whatever our ‘numbers’ would be.

Same as for someone who wants to quit smoking. The mindset has to be right at the first place. Make a firm decision to totally quit smoking, and follow that with the commitment to take all necessary actions, and one day, sooner or later, you will have the power to even reject cigarette offers from friends.

Furthermore, if my guess is right, that many people smoke because they want to follow the current trend, than this will be even simpler.

The issue is, do you WANT to smoke?

Or, do you HAVE to smoke?

If you can answer this question sincerely, you’ll be one step closer to having the right mindset towards quitting smoking.

And if I can do my guessing game again, I would say majority will choose to answer that they WANT to smoke, for whatever reasons they may have.

“WANT” is a desire.

“HAVE” is a necessity, an obligation.

So, how to fight the smoking desire, the addiction?

Easy. Fight it with an obligation.

Tell yourself it’s the time that you HAVE to stop smoking. Set it as a self obligation to start a better lifestyle, a smoking free lifestyle. And follow it with the proper actions, with your utmost commitment to achieve the target.

Many have succeeded, and so can you. Just believe in yourself, and don’t be bothered with what the society may say. You control yourself, you control your success.

"There Will Be No Success Without Discipline & Sacrifice. To Be, Or Not To Be..."