Last week, I realized my comfort zone was beginning to irritate me. Therefore, if I can’t “leave” my comfort zone, I will keep stretching it until doing what I want to do becomes a part of it.

I used to be a smoker. I smoked like a chimney. It seemed like either I was lighting up or putting out a cigarette. I believed cigarettes were my friend because I could count on them to keep me peaceful and sane. They were always available and helped me think. In a crisis, my cigarettes were the first ones on the scene.

However, I knew I was addicted. But I saw no way out. I’d quit a couple of times a year only to resume my habit with tremendous guilt and shame. Not even the Surgeon General’s warning that cigarettes were harmful to my health could stop me from smoking. What a horrible place to be!

I wanted to kick the habit without giving up cigarettes.

Deep down I knew cigarettes were only being disguised as my friend.

One day, I asked myself, “What do non-smokers think about? Surely, they don’t think about quitting cigarettes.” From then on, I’d get up in the morning and practice thinking like a non-smoker.

I’m going to start seeing my “old” blueprint as being disguised as my friend. Subby’s effort to keep me safe is holding me hostage in a place I don’t want to be. I can’t grow if I stay the same.

I will get up in the morning and think about where I want to go and how I’m going to get there.