I'm planning to quit.....slowly.

On innumerable occasions i've heard people talk about 'gradual termination'.The T-word being used in place of quitting or abstaining from something.The thing or things that they wish to stop may vary with the person concerned and the circumstances he is involved in.Consumption of cigarette smoke,alcohol,drugs etc are some of the things which are widely accepted as worthy of quitting.In some cases the subject under scrutiny might be a relationship.
I for one have always wondered what this particular oxymoronic pair of words actually means.Undoubtedly it is because a full stop means an abrupt ending.There is no such thing called 'gradual' stopping.
This isn't to say that we are deprived of the power to slow down the pace of something before coming to a total halt.It is only logical if a smoker who is planning to quit the habit cuts down the number of cigarettes he smokes before taking the decision to abstain from it completely.But the reality of the situation might be far from that.The person may go on smoking with the thought that he is going to put the brakes on his deadly habit very soon.So,if someone wants to abstain from something why doesn't he/she do it at the very instant that the thought occurs?The answer,of course,is that the human mind is vulnerable than anything else.Anyone remember the catchy one-liner,"i can resist everything except temptation"?