I used to be a smoker. Every year or so, I'd quit. I know some people have an easy go of it, but I was Mark from Trainspotting, watching that baby crawl on the

I used to be a smoker. Every year or so, I'd quit. I know some people have an easy go of it, but I was Mark from Trainspotting, watching that baby crawl on the ceiling. Every time I started smoking again, I'd curse myself, until I realized I was getting "better" at quitting. I'd subconsciously been making little life changes in between the painful cold turkey moments. Stuff like cutting back on how much I smoked a day, developing new ways to deal with stress, and tasks I could sub out for having a cigarette (oddly: gardening). I've spent the last few years working really hard on developing my ability to maintain focus on a task, improving my mental stamina, and pushing my programming skills. Every time my course veered into a spot where I felt less productive, I made some painful changes and tried again. And now I'm seeing the benefits (like getting up at 5 most days of the week, and coding for 12-14 hours). No pain, no gain.