Pick Up Your Feet

If you would humor me, I would like to tell you a story that illustrates why I believe this site works so well…and why I get so frustrated when people refuse to use the resources here and throw their quits away.

I played college football. Each year, at the beginning of the season—the night we reported for three-a-days—we had a fitness test. This test was specifically designed to ensure that players were at the maximum fitness level required for their position. The test was a “twelve minute run”—and the distance one had to cover on the track was determined by weight and position (smaller skilled positions had to run a greater distance in twelve minutes than lineman).

In short, the test was designed in such a way that it pushed most everyone to their physical limits. It leveled the playing field, so to speak. For once, the skinny guys didn’t have it any easier than the fat guys. All of us had to endure that hell.

And it was hell, let me assure you.

The simple reality that everyone on the team had to face was that you did not suit up for a game until you had successfully passed the fitness test. There were some guys each season that had to run the thing five and six times—even running it the night before the home opener on one occasion (I ran it twice my freshman year).

It wasn’t that any players ever reported in such poor shape that they couldn’t make the laps around the track—it was just that many weren’t in good enough shape—either mentally or physically—to push themselves to run at the necessary pace.

This is where my coaches devised a brilliant team-building clause: players were permitted to “push” one another. That is, other players were permitted to run behind people, put their hands in the small of the other player’s back—and physically push them. In these circumstances, what this accomplished was to get you running at the appropriate pace.

I remember the time I was “pushed.” I was running the test for the second time as a freshman and already behind pace in the second lap. I was sucking wind pretty hard and thinking about just giving up. “I’ll run it again next week,” I thought to myself.

At this point, an older player ran up behind me, jammed his hands in the small of my back and yelled at me—”I’ll get you across the line—just pick up your feet!”

Oddly enough, that felt like all that I had to do—pick up my feet. Each step of the way, all I had to do was find the courage to lift up my feet—place one in front of the other—and trust him that he knew what he was doing and he was going to get me across the line within the time permitted. The test was excruciatingly painful—more painful even than the attempt I had failed on my own…but I just kept picking up my feet and letting my teammates’ momentum carry me.

After two laps of pushing me, he got tired and another player stepped in and took his place. By the time I crossed the finish line, I had been pushed by six teammates and was surrounded by others encouraging me and cheering me on.

Why did I bother to tell you this story? Because, in my mind, this is exactly how things at QSX work. Nobody here can make it across the finish line themselves—so other people come up behind and push you. All you have to do is trust the people pushing you and pick up your feet.

Do you feel like caving? Throwing away three days or thirty days or three hundred days? For the love of everything holy, let somebody know that. Within seconds, you will be surrounded by a pack of people dead set on getting you across the line. All you have to do is pick up your feet.

There is nothing magical about quitting smokeless tobacco here. It doesn’t require a high IQ, lots of money, or Jack Bauer’s pain tolerance. It simply requires the resolve to run the race and let others push you when you’re physically or mentally incapable.

Pick up your feet. That is why QSX works. The people that are pushing you now have been pushed themselves. They are saying the same things that others said to them when they were in your shoes. And they are testifying to you that you can make it…just like they have.

All “picking up your feet” means here is posting roll, posting cries for help, making a phone call or PMing somebody when the “check engine” light is on, and keeping your word that you won’t cave unless you ask a brother or sister’s permission.

I don’t care if you’re two days into your quit or two hundred—pick up your feet! There are tons of people here that are dying to help you! Pick up your feet! Let them push you through one crave at a time, and then when you feel better—go find somebody else that needs a push.

Fighting the Battle with you & thankful for all those who have pushed me.

Gi Kea December 6, 2006

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member GiKea