The Day I Quit Smoking
If you are a smoker, and have been for some time, it is likely that you have tried to stop smoking at some point in your life and as you are still a smoker, like me and many others you failed to quit. This is very common and is nothing to be ashamed of, neither is it something to excuse. We all do it at some point, we try to quit, we fail and we justify the failure with some lame excuse. Trust me the excuse is always a lame one I am a great authority on making excuses for failing to quit smoking.
A little about me and my qualifications to make the above statement. I am 41 years old and started smoking when I was 12, encouraged by my best friend at the time and we both thought we were really cool, how stupid is that? I continued to smoke and quit and smoke and quit for the next 30 years. I never stopped to examine the reasons why I failed I just accepted that I was a confirmed smoker (by the way there is no such thing), and made an excuse that I was stressed / unhappy / could stop again whenever I wanted / was in control (ha ha), and many more variations to excuse that fact that I couldn't stop smoking.
I tried various methods to stop such as The Willpower Method, Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and a combination of the two, always doomed to failure. I never tried Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) or Hypnotherapy as the thought of these methods scared me and I was convinced I didn't need anything like that. How wrong I was. Although they may seem extreme they are the most successful method of all to quitting smoking. The reason that Willpower and NRT fail is that they do not remove the desire for cigarettes, they do not change your perception of the evil sticks, they leave that all up to you, you have to have the presence of mind and insight to do all that yourself, yeah thanks, whilst all strung out craving a cigarette I also have to become my own psycho-analyst.
This is where the methods of NLP or Hypnotherapy win over the others, the idea is to change your whole perception of the ridiculous act of smoking. Without the deep rooted perceptions and, let's face it, brainwashing that every smoker suffers from, being removed, the chances of quitting smoking are greatly reduced. Once you accept that smoking is not just a physical addiction to nicotine and there is a whole bunch of psychology attached to it, and continuing to do it, then your perception has started to be changed. You have taken the first step towards being a non-smoker. NLP can help you realise the reasons why you smoke, which then gives you the tools to knock down those reasons and get closer to quitting. The smoker who truly knows why he smokes, not the lame excuses mentioned above is well on his way to being a non-smoker.
If you are determined to be a non-smoker, in my experience most smokers would prefer to be non-smokers, then you need to look at different methods to help you quit the evil weed. I have taken those steps and I am now proud to declare that I am a non-smoker, I have never been so sure that I will never smoke again and there was not one ounce of willpower, patches or gum involved. For me it is NLP all the way, change your perceptions then change your life, for the better.
If you like you can follow my progress at:
I Have Quit Smoking
A little about me and my qualifications to make the above statement. I am 41 years old and started smoking when I was 12, encouraged by my best friend at the time and we both thought we were really cool, how stupid is that? I continued to smoke and quit and smoke and quit for the next 30 years. I never stopped to examine the reasons why I failed I just accepted that I was a confirmed smoker (by the way there is no such thing), and made an excuse that I was stressed / unhappy / could stop again whenever I wanted / was in control (ha ha), and many more variations to excuse that fact that I couldn't stop smoking.
I tried various methods to stop such as The Willpower Method, Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and a combination of the two, always doomed to failure. I never tried Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) or Hypnotherapy as the thought of these methods scared me and I was convinced I didn't need anything like that. How wrong I was. Although they may seem extreme they are the most successful method of all to quitting smoking. The reason that Willpower and NRT fail is that they do not remove the desire for cigarettes, they do not change your perception of the evil sticks, they leave that all up to you, you have to have the presence of mind and insight to do all that yourself, yeah thanks, whilst all strung out craving a cigarette I also have to become my own psycho-analyst.
This is where the methods of NLP or Hypnotherapy win over the others, the idea is to change your whole perception of the ridiculous act of smoking. Without the deep rooted perceptions and, let's face it, brainwashing that every smoker suffers from, being removed, the chances of quitting smoking are greatly reduced. Once you accept that smoking is not just a physical addiction to nicotine and there is a whole bunch of psychology attached to it, and continuing to do it, then your perception has started to be changed. You have taken the first step towards being a non-smoker. NLP can help you realise the reasons why you smoke, which then gives you the tools to knock down those reasons and get closer to quitting. The smoker who truly knows why he smokes, not the lame excuses mentioned above is well on his way to being a non-smoker.
If you are determined to be a non-smoker, in my experience most smokers would prefer to be non-smokers, then you need to look at different methods to help you quit the evil weed. I have taken those steps and I am now proud to declare that I am a non-smoker, I have never been so sure that I will never smoke again and there was not one ounce of willpower, patches or gum involved. For me it is NLP all the way, change your perceptions then change your life, for the better.
If you like you can follow my progress at:
I Have Quit Smoking
