Quill / Moments / Quotes for breaking a habit, on day one and day one again
Quotes for breaking a habit, on day one and day one again
Your thumb was on the app before you'd decided anything. Or it's the walk home, past the shop that used to be part of the evening, after the kind of meeting that used to end the same way. “Just this once” sounds very reasonable at about that point.
People who have been through it describe watching an urge rise and fall, changing what their hands are doing, and planning for the hard hour before it arrives. Many say a slip was something they came back from, and that the people they could call mattered more than any rule.
Quill has no view on how you stop or what you stop with. That belongs with a doctor or someone who knows your situation, particularly with alcohol. These lines keep you company without lecturing, on day one and again on the next day one.
The moments
- The pull that arrives straight after a stressful call
- Thumb already scrolling, no memory of opening the app
- A table of friends with drinks in front of them
- The usual hour in the evening, bored and restless
- Passing the shop that was part of the routine
- Flat after the first good week, and wondering why you bothered
- Day one again, after a slip
What people say helps
- Watching the urge rise and fall without acting on it
- Doing something different with their hands, or going somewhere else
- Planning the hard hours and the hard days ahead of time
- Having someone to check in with, and coming back after a slip
“Just stop” and “you need more willpower” are lectures, and people on day one again have heard enough of those.
Quill Originals are written by Quill. Popular sayings are widely repeated lines with no name attached. Lines with a name are checked word for word against public-domain books.
Quill Originals
Walk to the end of the road and reconsider.
Nobody's looking at what's in your hand.
Eat something, sleep, then see.
Shame is a rotten coach.
Back again. Good.
Doing nothing about it tonight is a real achievement.
You've outlasted this feeling many times.
You're allowed to be scared of who you are without it.
Hands busy, head follows.
A new kind of Saturday is on offer.
You can come back to this thought after dinner.
That excellent reason arrived at exactly the usual time.
What are you actually after right now?
Sleep on the argument.
A cheap alarm clock keeps the phone out of your bedroom.
Breathe out first.
From the outside this looks like making toast.
Sunday afternoons count as a hard hour too.
Secrets are heavier than slips.
Rough meeting. Walk to the kettle.
You stopped partway through. Partway counts.
Nobody claps for the things you didn't do tonight.
Popular sayings
It's never too late to change.
This feeling will pass.
One day or day one; you decide.
From the books
Bear with me, I am sick; I’ll leave it by degrees.
Read the passage around this line
By this white glove—how white the hand, God knows!— Henceforth my wooing mind shall be expressed In russet yeas and honest kersey noes. And, to begin: wench, so God help me, law, My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw. ROSALINE. Sans “sans,” I pray you. BEROWNE. Yet I have a trick Of the old rage. Bear with me, I am sick; I’ll leave it by degrees. Soft, let us see: Write “Lord have mercy on us” on those three. They are infected; in their hearts it lies; They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes. These lords are visited. You are not free, For the Lord’s tokens on you do I see. PRINCESS. No, they are free that gave these tokens to us.
Beware of the anger of the mind, and control thy mind!
Read the passage around this line
Beware of the anger of the mind, and control thy mind! Leave the sins of the mind, and practise virtue with thy mind!
Draw yourself out of the evil way, like an elephant sunk in mud.
Read the passage around this line
Be not thoughtless, watch your thoughts! Draw yourself out of the evil way, like an elephant sunk in mud.
Strong impulses are but another name for energy.
Against habit set the contrary habit.
Let a man give the reins to his impulses and passions, and from that moment he yields up his moral freedom.
Old habit of mind is one of the toughest things to get away from in the world.
Yield once, and a portion of virtue has gone.
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