{"id":59605,"date":"2026-03-16T18:11:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=59605"},"modified":"2026-03-16T18:11:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:11:36","slug":"dont-try-just-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=59605","title":{"rendered":"Don’t ‘try’ … just do it!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Forty-six years ago I made a command decision that freed me from the enslavement of a nasty habit and then changed my entire outlook on how I should treat future decisions. It changed my life.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Until Feb. 2, 1980, I smoked two packs of cigarettes each day. I liked smoking. I enjoyed lighting up a smoke and taking deep drags on it. Yes, I knew all about the surgeon general’s warning printed on the side of every pack I opened. I didn’t care. I was a young man and I must have thought I was invincible.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Then on that fateful day, I made a decision that has transformed me into a bona fide militant. I had slight cold and an annoying cough. I lit up a cigarette, took a drag … and damn near choked on it!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In that moment, I snuffed out the butt, crumpled up the pack from which I took it, tossed the pack of smokes into the trash. I never turned back.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My wife had been hassling me about the cough. She told me I should quit. I didn’t heed her wisdom. Until that fateful moment! I realized right then that Kathy Anne was a lot smarter than I am and I surrendered to the belief I should have listened to her long ago.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I was 30 years old at the time. I had been smoking since I was 15. So, for half my life I had been poisoning my lungs with cancer-causing agents.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The life lesson I learned from all this? It was to never postpone any decision that awaited! If I am going to quit a nasty habit, I vowed never to wait until next week, or the end of the day or until I was done doing what I intended to quit doing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I have scolded many friends in the 46 years since that moment about the wisdom of my decision. I have told them if they’re going to quit smoking that they had to do it right then. Right there. No delay. Just quit. Period … full stop.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Of course, I never anticipated back in 1980 that smoking cigarettes could be such an expensive and nasty habit. I must be the master of impeccable timing.<\/p>\r\n\n

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Forty-six years ago I made a command decision that freed me from the enslavement of a nasty habit and then changed my entire outlook on how I should treat future decisions. It changed my life. Until Feb. 2, 1980, I smoked two packs of cigarettes each day. I liked smoking. I enjoyed lighting up a … Continue reading Don’t ‘try’ … just do it!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4291,4476],"class_list":["post-59605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-news","tag-smoking","tag-surgeon-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59607,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59605\/revisions\/59607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}