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Learn an Instrument: I'll Have a CD out in December

by Joe Donovan

Kansas City, Missouri
United States

This is the story of my struggle to quit smoking. I don’t think this is a way for everyone to quit but it’s worked for two years for me. I am 46 years old and have smoked for at least 30 of those years. In that time, I have tried to quit so many times that I can't remember. I tried everything out there to keep me away from cigarettes. I tried all the nicotine replacements, hypnosis, acupuncture, antidepressants, dozens of different cessation programs and a few home remedy methods with no success. I've gone through at least a ream of paper writing detailed plans to quit. I've disappointed sponsors, quit buddies, friends and family members. I had failed so many times that my friends and family thought I would never really quit, and I was starting to think that I was going to die with a cigarette in my hand. One day, I decided to quit one more time. A friend had several different music instruments lying around and several kinds of music books on how to play them. I've always had a desire to play music so I borrowed a guitar and a chord book and wrote up another plan to quit. This time I traded my frustration and anxiousness for learning and practicing notes and chords on a guitar. The first month of not smoking went by so quickly. I started getting into learning the guitar. Whenever I wanted a cigarette, I would pick up a guitar, read something about guitars or listen to someone play guitar on CD. After three months, I went out with the money I saved and bought my own guitar. My frustration and anxiousness turned into passion. I couldn't believe what took me a week to learn before was now only taking a couple of hours. Instead of smoking or thinking about smoking, I was playing guitar or thinking about playing guitar. Now, two years later, not only am I still smoke-free but I'm playing in a blues band and writing music. We hope in December to have a CD that contains 10 original songs that my friend and I wrote. I can't help but think that if I would have started playing 30 years ago instead of smoking how great I'd be able to play now. But since I don't smoke anymore, I can't help but think how great I will be 30 years from now. My hope from sharing this is that it inspires others to put down their cigarettes and pick up something they have always wanted to do. Nobody thinks of me as "one in a million" or gifted. I'm nothing special at all. I just spend a lot of time practicing something I love doing. You don't realize how much time you're wasting smoking each day until you start doing something productive with that time. I also found out that it doesn't matter how many times you fail at quitting smoking, it's that one success that counts. It's never too late and you never start soon enough. P.S. I didn't gain a pound either; it's really hard to eat with a guitar in your hands.