Its Time to Quit Smoking

Source: Wish Bowl

"I am going to quit smoking tomorrow..." How
many times have you said this and how many
more times have you heard it? Smokers, like
alcoholics, make this pledge many times in their
lives because they need to and they break it for
the simple reason that pledges are always
meant to be broken. This does not mean that
every time you will take a pledge you will break
it. Try to make this the last one because you can
do it and you are going to do it. Believe it and
you will, here's some help:

• Believe in yourself. Believe that you can quit. Think
about some of the most difficult things you have
done in your life and realize that you have the guts
and determination to quit smoking. It's up to you.

• After reading this list, sit down and write your own
list, customized to your personality and way of
doing things. Create your own plan for quitting.

•Set a quit date. Decide what day you will extinguish
your cigarettes forever. Write it down. Plan for it.

• Prepare your mind for the "first day of the rest of
your life". You might even hold a small ceremony
when you smoke you last cigarette, or on the
morning of the quit date.

• Drink lots of water. Water is good for you anyway,
and most people don't get enough. It will help flush
the nicotine and other chemicals out of your body,
plus it can help reduce cravings by fulfilling the "oral
desires" that you may have.

• You need a good reason to quit. Simply deciding to
quit because the sky is blue is not a sufficient
reason. The need to quit smoking is obvious, but the
desire to quit needs to come from inside in order for
the process to be successful.

• Look for small rewards that you can give yourself
as you make progress. You are not likely to just
quit cold turkey with no complications. Set up small
rewards that will help you to want to make progress
towards ultimately quitting. This can be a great
motivation to keep you on target.

• Plan out your quitting strategy.

• Decide how you
want to try to quit and stick to it. Set a specific
amount of time for your plan. If after a time, say six
weeks you have not quit, work on a new plan. This
will allow ample time to try each method, while still
giving yourself flexibility to try something else.

• Work to overcome your struggles. If you are
smoking due to stressful things in your life, you
need to deal with the stress before you can
successfully quit. Regardless of the reason why
you are smoking, it needs to be dealt with in able to
quit for good.

• Set up a punishment for yourself. For example, if
you generally stop at a Cafe each day for a coffee
you might consider skipping that on days when you
have fallen short of your goals for smoking.

• Whatever punishment you select, make sure it is
something that you care about.
Seek out help from your friends and family. You
need support as you are trying to quit, and this will
help you to ensure that you are not alone in the
entire process.

• Look for someone to quit with you. If you are
entirely on your own, you are going to be much
more likely to slip back into smoking. If someone is
working with you and holding you accountable, you
are more likely to struggle to succeed. Working to
quit smoking is not easy, but hard tasks are much
easier to accomplish with a partner.

• Aim to quit for good. This might seem a bit strange,
but if you are just planning to quit for a weekend
you are not going to put much effort into the
process. If you are planning to quit for good, a lot
more time and effort is going to go into the process
as well as your plan to quit.

• Look for ways to take your mind off cigarettes. If
you are always thinking about cigarettes, you may
find that you are much more tempted to smoke.

• Reading a book, exercising, talking on the phone,
surfing the internet and even cooking are all great
ways to occupy your mind and keep from thinking
about when your last cigarette was.

Conclusion:

The decision to stop smoking can be one of the
best choices that you can make for your health
and your life. So it makes sense to put
everything into it when you decide to quit
ensuring success. Think of the things that
motivate you, find a support system, and use
tips like the ones in this article to create a plan
that is sure to succeed.

Most people are readily aware that stopping
smoking can improve their health, but learning
how to really conquer the urges to smoke is not
easy. With so many temptations circulating
around, as well as the stresses of daily life it is
easy to see why jumping into a pack of
cigarettes seems like a good idea.

But, the bottom line is that you need to just take
it one day at a time and step by. You can achieve
the ability to quit smoking, but it is something
that you do not want to look too far in the
future. You do not want to get to the place
where you think you are so strong that you can
put yourself in vulnerable situations.

You need
to surround yourself with other non-smokers,
or you can hang with the same friends you have
always had as long as they are respectful to the
path which you are walking; they may even be
inspired by you to take control of their own life.