Quitting Smoking As A Martial Artist

"You must throw away your bad habits to become good."

-Masaaki Hatsumi

 

"When teachers have bad habits, those bad habits can mean the difference between between life and death for their students."

-Masaaki Hatsumi

Well, the time has come for me to stop smoking.

The reason I am writing about this in a martial arts blog is because it has a lot to do with both self-control and perseverance.

I know quitting smoking isn't the most dramatic thing in the world; but it leads to more deaths than most other drugs put together. And terrifyingly, as a heroin addict once put it to me, "I was able to stop using heroine. But I cannot stop smoking."

That alone is enough to give me pause and contemplate the matter.

I'm doing this for a number of reasons; for one its a huge drain on money. Another is I have noticed issues with staying hydrated. But more importantly it seems the right thing to do for frankly moral reasons. That sense of intuition that tells us it is simply the right thing to do, though I cannot put finger on the exact reason it feels this way.

I have been smoking for only about six months, but in the last month or so the habit really went up a notch. I'm only at about a half pack a day, but that's about five times more than I was at three months ago, ten times the amount five months ago, and literally infinitely more than I was imbibing a year ago.

As a martial artist we have to learn how to control impulses and urges that can be self-destructive. If a moral martial artist seeks to not harm others or anything, that certainly includes themselves.

So how will I go about doing this?

Naturally I'll weather the cravings. Even as I write this I am experiencing one. Fortunately I am aware that cravings will pass. And if I do not give in to them, they will grow weaker with time.

I will focus on training. Perhaps every time I have a craving I will do push-ups. Perhaps every time I think of smoking and attempting to, I will do all the forms I know. I will distract myself with developing myself in other areas.

I will cultivate self-discipline.

In a way it is a test, or at least, I choose to see it as such. If I can conquer this, perhaps I can with a degree of certainty say to myself, as little as I may be able to control the world, at least I can control myself.

Is that not a truth martial artists would all like to honestly speak to themselves?

I can do it. It just won't be much fun. But I will still do it with a happiness that I know I can do anything I truly fix my mind to achieving.

 

"Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; Actions lead to habits; Habits decide character; And character fixes our destiny."

-Tyrone Edwards

 

"The journey of a thousand miles, begins with the first step."

-Lao Tzu