Stopping versus quitting

Stopping vs. Quitting

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Make a mental distinction between just stopping smoking and quitting altogether.

    They say that 90% of all smoking cessation products and programs are unsuccessful. People spend the money, go through the program and yet ultimately wind up smoking. Why? Because......they weren't ready to quit. They had not progressed to the point where they not only wanted to quit, wished they could quit but were actually determined to quit and believed they could quit. Let's face it, if you believed you could quit and were determined to do it, you would have done it a long time ago.
   On some of my previous quit efforts, I actually made it through a whole day of not smoking and a couple of times even more than a day. Although my 40 year smoking habit spanned 14,600 days, less than 180 of them were smoke free and they were just about the worst 180 days of my life. The reason is that even though I had stopped smoking, I still wanted to smoke. All the time. Even when the addiction urges were over, I still wanted to smoke. That's because the habit urges were still strong. To be honest, the real reason I wanted to smoke was that I enjoyed it and I did not want to go the rest of my life without a cigarette. I was constantly on the look for a reason to start and I always found one.
    I felt that for the rest of my life I would always feel the desire for one and remember the nice relaxing feeling it gave me. Since I did not want to spend the rest of my life feeling that desire and not giving in, I ultimately rationalized to the point where I would give in and light up. Every smoker I've talked to tells me they've done exactly that and I'll bet that you have too.
    I felt badly afterward and I rationalized doing it by saying that it relieved the tension. Ironic isn't it? You are uptight and tense because you are afraid of smoking so you smoke to ease the tension thereby proving once again that smoking is not a smart thing to do.
    Johnny Carson died from emphysema in March of 2005. He was a bigtime smoker. I'll bet if you asked him that day, "What do you think the dumbest thing you ever did in your life was?" he would tell you it was to start smoking. It truly is a decision you will live to regret.
    Yet on June 6th, 2000 I quit. The amazing part for me was that I did not want a cigarette and I did not want to smoke. That was the difference. After that day, the desire was gone. It was over. Sure I had a few urges but even when I had them, I did not want to give in to them. I did not want to smoke. I had not just stopped smoking, I had quit altogether.
    I was ready to do it and that is why I succeeded. When you are really ready to quit, you will not want to smoke. You won't just wish you could stop yet deep down inside still want to smoke. You will be determined to quit and not want to smoke.
    That's where you need to get your head to in order to succeed. You need to get beyond stopping smoking, where you still want a cigarette, to quitting smoking where you do not want a cigarette.

My book differs from the rest in that it will not just tell you that you have to be ready to do it.
It will show you how to do it.
How to be:
Free At Last!

The Quitsmoking Guy
2450 Sandalwood Court.
Bright's Grove, Ontario, Canada N0N 1C0
Phone: (519) 384 9486
Email: quitsmokingguy @cogeco.ca