The Little Things = The Biggest Things

Back in 2008, I stayed in a house with a guy who decorated his room with Skoal chewing tobacco lids he’d used. I know. Bold design choice. He used tacks to hang the lids under the crown molding just below his ceiling. Different flavors, different colors. Picture an ever-expanding snakeline of blues, greens, blacks, silvers all around the top of the walls. Kind of like a disco ball.

He was a great guy, don’t get me wrong. Super nice and smart. We lived in California, and he was from the South. I think the Skoal decoration reminded him of his hometown. He told me where he grew up, everyone dipped chewing tobacco.

But one day, all the lids disappeared. He said that morning, he looked around his room, saw all the dip lids, and thought, “This is pretty gross.” And he stopped dipping that day. I’ve heard of some unique ways to quit a substance, but that one always stands out.

The knock-on effect of not buying chewing tobacco everyday was that he could now spend that money elsewhere. I remember clearly how he wasn’t as excited about saving himself from mouth cancer as he was about having an extra $10 a day.

That last part, I totally get. But for my own reasons. I’m from Seattle. I grew up back when Starbucks was good (it really was!). The coffee scene in Seattle was unparalleled. And I came to absolutely love coffee. Good, fresh-roasted, specialty coffee. The kind of iced latte where you spend $7 and think, “I can’t believe I just spent that much money on a cup of coffee” kind of coffee. To this day, specialty coffee is my one remaining true vice.

But the thing is, you gotta have specialty money to afford specialty coffee. Here in Charlotte, the best coffee beans around, from Night Swim, cost…wait for it…twenty-eight dollars a pound. $28! It’s a bananas amount of money for such a small amount of thing.

For the year I was addicted to OPMS and Feel Frees, I settled for Kirkland Signature (Costco) bulk coffee. It was $18 for three pounds. A giant silver bag with a silhouette of a jaguar. It was…not good. Not at all good. It was one of the many sacrifices I made to be able to afford my kratom habit. And I knew it. I knew that because I made trips to the smoke shop every day, I couldn’t drink coffee I wanted. I know, it sounds dumb, but I’ve got a good point here, I promise.

It’s little things like good coffee that get swept away in the grander scheme of maintaining an addiction. But little things happen to make up the majority of life. And we don’t really consider the impact these little things have on us. When we imagine life without an addiction, we think of big things. Big things that will get easier when we quit. Buying a home, or a new car, or getting a better job, starting new hobbies, those kind of big things. But those are more events and activities than tiny pleasures.

When I quit kratom, I started buying Night Swim coffee. It was a great trade-off, too: instead of spending $350 a week on a drug, I was spending $28 every 10 days or so on some of the best specialty coffee I’ve ever had. That’s a win-win.

If you’re struggling with an addiction and are having a tough time identifying some quick wins that you’ll get if you quit, find your version of my specialty coffee. The little things you were forced to cut out of your life that brought you immense joy. Again, it’s the little things that make up the majority of a life. Finding a way to maximize the value and pleasure of these little things put you well on your way to a happier life. It’s just incredible how easy it is to do this when you’re not spending money maintaining an addiction that, in the long run, is bringing you no value and pleasure at all. Like my friend who quit Skoal and suddenly had an extra $10 a day to spend on whatever he wanted.

So, what’s your specialty coffee? What’s your little thing that you love that you’ve had to stop doing because of a drug? You deserve to have that thing back in your life. You really shouldn’t have to sacrifice it. Don’t settle for a Kirkland Signature kind of life (no offense to Costco, I love Costco). But also, don’t settle period.

You don’t need to have all the big things in life figured out to take a step away from using a drug. One little thing could actually make a huge difference. I’m literally drinking a cup of Night Swim between these paragraphs. Never would’ve happened if I hadn’t quit kratom.

Remember, you deserve all the best things in life. Especially the little things. You really, really do.

Much love,

Matt von Boecklin
Founder / Quit Kit