How To Quit Smoking Now
Are You Choosing To Quit Smoking Now Or For Good
Many people who have attended a quit smoking now course often tell the host, much later on, that they never expected to succeed. The chances are they had tried to stop many times before, both on their own and with other kinds of help, and had failed over and over again. It’s probable that you also, to a greater or lesser extent, have a conviction that even if you quit smoking now, you will not be able to stay stopped for very long. It’s a common and understandable concern to have. The problem, however, is not with your expectation of failure, but with the way you try to cope with it.
To begin with, you may cope with it by not making any attempt at all to quit smoking now: if you don’t try, you won’t fail! You may tell yourself you are waiting until you feel more motivated, because then, you think, you will be more likely to succeed. However, the motivation you are likely to be waiting for is a threat to your health: most smokers justify their smoking by reasoning that if anything serious really did happen, then of course they would stop.
But bad health doesn’t remove your concerns about failure, it increases them. I have talked to a great many smokers who find themselves stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea: fearing not trying to quit smoking now because smoking is causing serious illness, and fearing making an attempt that fails.
Sooner or later, though, your fears push you into trying to quit smoking for good. You make a solemn vow never to smoke again. You reason that in order to quit smoking now and successfully stay stopped, you must make a commitment that, once made, you are bound to keep. It’s a final decision, made once and for all, and the possibility of smoking again is not to be considered.
The Commitment Trap
The irony is that it is precisely this way of thinking that keeps so many smokers from even attempting to stop. Or, even if they do, it is absolutely bound to make them feel such deprivation that it becomes unbearable to keep to their commitment! Making a commitment never to smoke again is simply denying your freedom to smoke. And as you may already know, denying your freedom to smoke means that you will feel deprived.
The problem, however, is that for many people the possibility of failure is so awful they think it’s safer to think in terms of making one choice to quit smoking for good that will have to last for ever.
Of course, if you really could eliminate your freedom to return to smoking, you would indeed be secure. If you really were locked up for ever in a cell with no cigarettes, you would definitely quit smoking today! But, assuming you live in a free world with access to cigarettes, this sense of security is an extremely dangerous illusion.
This explains why it is that some smokers can appear to be so very motivated to stop, yet fail over and over again. The more desperate they are to quit smoking today, the more they throw themselves into a commitment to stop for ever, and the more trapped and deprived they end up feeling. So, after a brief and agonizing period of time, they break down and smoke, only to feel even more desperate the next time they try to stop. It’s a vicious circle. And unless you are aware of the attitude you are taking, you may create this very situation for yourself,
As with all the difficulties that smokers create in their attempts to stop, there is a way to change your thinking so it becomes much more positive, realistic and attainable. If you really want to stay stopped this time, you need to overcome your fear of failure without denying your freedom to fail. And the way to do that is to choose to quit smoking now and only for the present time.