When my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach told me his 18-year-old son—my old training partner—was smoking cigars, a spark of hell no ignited inside me.

Not because I was angry.

But because I care.

I’ve seen where this road leads. It’s not pretty.

His father? Cool as a cucumber.

He shrugged and said, “If he wants to smoke, he can. I won’t stop him. But he has to buy his own cigars—I’m not funding that habit.”

Fine. Fair. But I wasn’t about to let it slide.

“I’ll talk to him,” I said.

His father replied, “You can try. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”

That same night, I shot him a message:

“So, I hear you’re trying to be cool by smoking?”

He laughed and replied, “Nah, I’m not trying to be cool.”

“Oh? Then what? Trying to fit in with your buddies who think puffing on cigars makes them look like James Bond?”

More laughter. “No, it’s not that.”

“Alright then. Why are you smoking? What’s the reason?”

“Let me guess—you like the taste? Come on. Don’t lie to yourself. “

“Nobody likes the taste of cigars at first. In fact, everyone hates it.

The ‘taste’ only grows on you when it turns into an addiction.”

“Here’s the truth: At 18, there’s only ONE reason anyone starts smoking.”

“Rebellion.”

“Trying to look cool.”

Fitting in with the ‘cool kids.’

“That’s it. Period. End of story. I won’t argue with you about it. “

“Just think about it. “

“If you can’t be honest with me. “

“Be honest with your self.”

I knew my words might not stick, but I wasn’t about to keep quiet.

Fast-forward a month. I’m back in the gym. At the end of session his dad told me, “My son quit smoking.”

Boom. Victory.

So, I hit him up again:

“If this is true, congrats. You don’t even realize the magnitude of what you’ve done.

You can’t see its implications of your decision now because you’re still young.

But in 10 or 20 years, you’ll understand.

While your friends are still wrestling with an addiction they wish they could quit, you’ll be free.

You dodged a bullet, man.”

Every decision you make today matters. You may not see it now, but years from now, those decisions will show up in your life—loud and clear.

Habits stack up, whether you like it or not.

The good ones? They build a future you’ll love.

The bad ones? They dig you into a hole you’ll hate.

And the consequences of your actions—or inaction—creep up on you. You don’t realize it until it’s too late.

Just like I didn’t realize, until much later, that I had become a chronic procrastinator—trapped by the habits I let slide for years.

And just like that, you wake up one day and realize: This is the life you created.

So, stop. Pause. Think.

Make the kind of decisions that future-you will look back on and say, ‘Hell yeah.’

Igor “Decide Today” Stojadinović