Turning 40 and Reaching 5 Months of Vaping

I recently turned 40. Which means my thoughts have oscillated between deciding it’s just an arbitrary number and cataloguing the achievements I hoped to accomplish by now. Should I see it as a major turning point at which life begins, or a sad realisation that I can no longer aspire to be listed as a ‘top 30 under 30’ or ‘top 40 under 40’ in anything? And that’s not helped by by dreaming subconscious apparently reliving my teenage and student years through the lens of John Hughes in the sleeping adventures I can remember when I wake up.

But there are positives I can focus on. If I had to pick a time when my life began, it would be when my son was born – rather than an arbitrary round number of years since my mother began years of hard work to support alongside my dad. My business adventures are not the most wildly successful in history, but they continue, and they’ve helped others achieve impressive success with contributions both large and small. I haven’t managed my childhood dream of creating an amazing novel or screenplay. But I did appear for a few seconds in a British film with featured names you might actually recognise, and have got to know some very talented writers who have inspired me to improve my fiction. And having played a small part in getting some geeks to meet up at a local pub, it’s now a thriving monthly gathering and an annual STEM festival attracting hundreds of children and their families.

Most of all my son is growing from a very cute child (I’m biased, I know), into a very intelligent, sociable and confident young man.

And I’ve got a growing awareness of the things I can control and work on, and what I need to accept and adapt to. I can’t control the events of life, only how I react and deal with them. And that has meant building up my persistance and determination even as I’ve encountered the loss of family members or friends.

That includes celebrating the smaller victories. To write a novel, or build a business, means maintaining momentum over a long period by gaining fuel from the small accomplishments each day. Enjoying each step on the journey, whether it’s completing a page, finishing a task, or even managing client communication and billing.

One of those things that I’ve been tracking and celebrating to keep up my enthusiasm has been my switch from smoking to vaping. And I can take some pride in the fact that not only have my ex and her partner also switched – meaning my son no longer has any smokers in his immediate family circle, but I’ve even had a few people contact me via Facebook etc to say they’ve been following what I’ve been doing and it’s helped or inspired them to either quit smoking, quit any nicotine delivery, or to share it with friends they’d like to encourage to stop smoking.

With that in mind, here’s the latest progress….

Turning 40 and Reaching 5 Months of Vaping

• 152 days since my last cigarette.
• 2,280 cigarettes not smoked. (Average of 15 per day)
• £1,140 cigarettes not bought (Average of £10 per pack of Marlboro)
• Total cost of vaping so far: Kit (inc 2 tanks) £92. Liquids and coils: £222.48. Total: £314.48.
• Savings after 5 months: £825.52
• At 10 minutes per cigarette, I’ve now potentially regained: 380 hours of life. Which is 15.83 days. Or just over 2 weeks of potential life expectancy.
• Exercise: I’ve had to take more pauses than I’d like due to some joint/muscle issues. But 107 days of exercise in total still means I’ve managed roughly 3,000 push-ups and squats. And I’m glad to have pushed towards 50 every day to allow me to have the odd recovery period and still achieve an overall 30 per day average…