If you want to really quit smoking, you must first be clear that you are serious about it, and it is not just a passing fancy. In order to test your resolve to quit smoking you should form a small support group that will be there for you when you start to feel weak and find it difficult to stick to your decision. After all, it is not easy to break a habit. You need to be answerable to yourself and others to be able to battle with the so-called nicotine beast, other smokers and your subconscious. They can all be very persuasive threats on the road to quitting. That is why it is absolutely essential to have a solid support group of at least two or three other people. If you can have five, it is even better.
When you try to do it alone, you are more likely going to succumb to the overwhelming urge because you are answerable to only one person. But if you have a group, that’s a different ball game altogether.
Being accountable to others in the group
It kind of works backwards to just being accountable to yourself. For example, let’s say you’ve been off cigarettes for a week and for whatever silly reason your mind has come up with, you figure you need a smoke. Well, before you can do that, you have to battle your inner demons and then live with the guilt that you have failed. But the nicotine beast, as I said, is very strong and you are only one person. Many people fall down at this point.
On the other hand, if you had five loyal soldiers standing between the overwhelming urge and you, then it would be an entirely different story.
Here’s how it works.
So, it is best to set up a small support group for yourself via email, telephone, or a support forum. If you can find people who have gone through similar experience, they can be very supportive and encouraging. Once you have a group, tell them your goal to quit smoking. Let them know that you need them at times when you are feeling weak in your resolve, but they should not to pester you about it. They should just be there when you need help and positive support.
Now, with a support group in place, when you again encounter an overwhelming urge to smoke, you will have to get past not just your own guilty conscience, but you have to call these five people and tell them that you have decided to start smoking again.
And that’s all you get to say. No more. Then you just have to sit back and listen without getting angry or upset. If you can make it through all five members of your support team and you still think that their advice and support is misguided and your deep down beliefs that you should quit are suddenly wrong, then by all means have that ‘one’ cigarette. But I warn you now, don’t think that you’ll just have the one – you won’t. It’s always, always, always the first one that will get you.
This is why the support system works so well – because now it’s six (your support team plus you) against the ‘one’.
One last point, you must be well informed about the whole process before you try to quit smoking. The more you know about quitting, the more successful you will be.
To your success,
Darren Warmuth
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