Sucessfully quitting smoking

I had an email recently from a man who said "I have been trying to give up smoking for years and years."

Two things struck me about that one comment (and I do tend to hear them a good deal):

1) "Trying"....trying implies failing. "I'll try and get that done by Wednesday" really means you won't see it until Friday. In other words it's a socially acceptable cop out. Harsh I know, but how often have you heard someone say "Well I said I'd try...." as they failed to deliver what you thought was a done deal.

2) "Giving up" What do those two words say to you? Think about the times when you said them, even drift back to childhood when perhaps you "gave up" chocolate for lent. (Does that still happen?) You really wanted the chocolate but for some other life affirming reason you decided not to have it.

Now think about those words in the context of smoking. "giving up" sounds like you still want to smoke. Subconsciously the desire to smoke is the same, it's just that pesky conscious part of mind that worries about negative health effects that wants to stop.


What's the alternative?

Don't try, just stop
Sometimes you'll be successful in stopping for a long time and sometimes not.


Don't "give up"
Decide to focus on what you want (to be a non-smoker). The only things you are giving up are the very negative health impacts of smoking. Decide simply to be a non-smoker.

The words you use to yourself have far more power than you know.