It turns out that I did a lot of things right when I quit smoking. I wish I could take credit for all of them, but alas, most of them happened by dumb luck. A few were the happy byproducts of things that I did plan, so I try to take a bit of credit for those, but in reality, I got very, very lucky.
I decided to try quitting a few months before I actually did it. A series of events were lining up that presented the perfect opportunity. 1) I was going on vacation in the UK, so the flight home meant I'd be stuck smoke free for about 11 hours no matter what. 2) My arrival time at home was about 6 pm (2 am London time) so I'd struggle to stay up for an hour or two and then sleep for another 8-10 hours. I could actually make it through the first 24 hours on only 2 hours of willpower! 3) My partner was also going to Australia for two weeks, direct from London, so I was at significantly reduced risk of ruining my relationship and my life if withdrawal turned me into a monster.
The stars were aligning nicely. I would give it a whirl and if it didn't work out, no one but me needed to be disappointed.
So, I did it. I had my last smoke in the afternoon sun outside of Heathrow, walked through security, and didn't really look back. Some 11 hours later I arrived in Edmonton and piled in to the back of my in-laws' car. "Did you have time for a smoke?" my generous mother-in-law asked. "I'm good, yeah, thanks." I think I managed to stay awake until about 8 pm before falling asleep. Everything was going according to plan.
While I had planned on the benefits of that first 24-hour window, what I hadn't anticipated was what the next few days would hold. Jet lag. If you can plan to quit smoking while you're suffering from jet lag, I highly recommend it. Seriously, you can't concentrate, you're slow, you're irritable, you're clumsy, your sleep cycle is messed up. Is it the withdrawal or the jet lag? Who knows? I'm still not sure which was which, but here's what I learned: I couldn't blame every rotten feeling in my body and my brain on quitting; I had an equally plausible counter-explanation. I had deniability. I had a scapegoat.
I'm sure many other things can be substituted for jet lag: switching to midnight shifts, having a baby wake you relentlessly all night long -- basically anything that is going to leave you slightly confused and profoundly alienated from your own body.
Sure it's important to plan. It's important to have something tangible to hold onto, to put into play, to fall back on. But it's also important to remember that luck can come from the most unlikely places, that good fortune is looking for you. Smile at it when it arrives. Jet lag won't last forever after all.
