Quit Smoking

Quit Smoking Easily with these 4 simple steps

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Quit SmokingQuit Smoking Easily with these 4 simple steps

All it takes is one puff of a cigarette to start smoking again. This is the underlying principle that we need to understand before starting our journey towards quitting smoking.

I smoked for 11 years and tried to quit multiple times but failed every single time. In this post, I’m sharing a few tips that helped me quit smoking once and for all. Now, it is been 6 years and I have not smoked. It feels so great about this feeling of being free of such a big habit.

If you quit for more than one year you’re likely to lose your risk of becoming a smoker again.

1. Change the psychology

This is the most critical step that is required. When I was trying to quit smoking, I failed multiple times because my psychology was “I want to quit”. I got successful in quitting smoking when I changed my psychology to “I’m not a smoker”. This little change in psychology changed everything. Why?

James Clear in his book Atomic Habits talks about something called “The desired Personality”. If you wish to change a habit, think about the personality of the person you want to become and start acting like one.

Though I hadn’t read this book at the time when I quit smoking but this is exactly what I did. I adapted the personality of a non-smoker.

Change your psychology from "I'm trying to quit" to "I don't smoke"

2. Quit smoking with denial

Quitting smoking helps relieve stress. In the first few days after quitting you may feel miserable. these are nothing but withdrawal symptoms. But, in a couple of weeks, these symptoms will gradually go away.
Imagine trying to quit smoking for the rest of your life. Not only are you trying to quit smoking but you also have to quit smoking with your friends which means you have to deny your friends every time they offer you to smoke. I know it’s hard. In fact, the hardest part.
But, using step 1 i.e. the psychology you will be able to easily deny your friends. Just say “I don’t smoke”. I know it’ll result in a burst of laughter. But, think of a bigger goal here. You will not believe its power, after a week even the psychology of your friends will start to change.
Start denying everyone who offers you to smoke

3. Make it easy to quit

Smoking is a bad habit and quitting smoking can be hard. Make it easier for yourself by being sure the process is easy. When quitting smoking for a week, you will be surprised how much easier it is.
  • Prepare a quit plan. If you know what you want to do, there will be no waiting for the time to end.
  • Set a quitting date. Set a quit date that you want to quit smoking. By quitting with the deadline you can get your plans into motion right away.
  • Quit smoking the day before. It’s the easiest thing to do. Not going to quit smoking on the quitting day, is the hardest thing to do. You have to quit smoking the day before and not on the quitting day.
Set a date to quit smoking but quit a day before

4. Manage the stimuli

Many a time we get the urge to smoke whenever there is a stimulus.
For example – smoking breaks at Office. Our body is used to having those smoking breaks in between meetings. Suppose every day, you have a habit of smoking before entering the office in the morning. Now, after quitting when you’ll go to the office there is a stimulus waiting for you that will signal your body to react and give you the urge to smoke again. How do you manage this?
There is no one answer to this. It can be different for different people and scenarios.
One way is to replace the reaction to this stimulus i.e. whenever there is a stimulus to urge smoking, simply replace smoking with any other activity as a reaction.
But, having an understanding of what is actually happening to your body also helps in managing this stimulus.

Just try to use these tips the next time you try to quit smoking. It will definitely help.

If you found my post useful then do share it with your friends and colleagues. If you have any feedback/questions, you may leave a comment below. I will reply.

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