Power of Positive Thinking

"Sod it...I'm going to quit!" said Rollling Stone's drummer Charlie Watts when faced this week with serious health consequences he decided to quit smoking after 55 years on the weed! Well done Charlie and best of luck.
Somehow I don't think he'll need luck because it sounds like he simply doesn't want to smoke anymore.
On the 13th of next month it will be 13 years since I gave up. "Is it worth it after all this time?" enquired a colleague at the time. I remember thinking then that her comments were probably a reference to my age, and to my record of unsuccessful previous attempts. Plus the fact that smokers seemed obsessed with discouraging those that want to stop. Have you noticed that?  But I also remember how at the time I felt  about stopping.   Of course... it was to do with health threats and the impact of that on my family. But it was also to do with the notion that at my age it didn't matter...and I wasn't happy to accept that idea!  The significant thing I remember however, was that previously I had quit because I felt I should. It was the right thing to do.  Now I was going to quit because I wanted to. Previously I had left the body in charge to withstand and hopefully forget the cravings and satisfaction of nicotine. This time I put the mind in control of things. The body would still want to succumb but the mind would say "no we don't do that any more!"

It's probably over 40 years since I bought my first book on the Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. And yes I wish I'd read it and grasped the meaning back then....I'd say "if only etc. etc"  but I don't  do if only these days...(wisdom came late in life)
Maybe it's because we have to experience something before we understand it (some ancient philosopher said that I do remember) that we find it hard to learn lessons by reading from a book.
I wager that any of us can look back and with 5 minutes thought we will remember 3 or 4 experiences where we did something we had previously considered beyond us! Thus we learnt the meaning of self-limiting beliefs and the power of positive thinking.
So apologies Norman. It took me a while to see the light but there's no stopping me now. And Charlie too I'm sure