When did you last try - and fail - to quit smoking? January is usually a popular month, as those well-intentioned New Year's Resolutions start cracking under pressure from the grind of everyday life. And whilst failure may well pile guilt onto a bruised ego, there's also an element of relief, isn't there?
Is there? There shouldn't be! So be honest with yourself now, because if you sympathized with that statement on any level, then trying to quit was just a big waste of your time - you never actually intended to succeed!
You deceived yourself - and quite possibly friends and loved ones too - by staging a little melodrama that was doomed from the outset to end with your lips wrapped shamefully around a smouldering cigarette. And subconsciously, you'd read the script long before you took to the stage.
Actually, although you may not realize it, you wrote that script! And it probably wasn't the first, and unless you change your ways it certainly won't be the last. So do yourself a huge favour before trying to quit again; decide whether or not it's something you really want to do!
Just the other day, I spoke with a middle-aged woman whose daughter desperately wants her to quit. It won't happen, though - because this lady not only loves smoking; she truly believes it's good for her! In between awkwardly laboured gasps, she enlightened me with amazing enthusiasm as to how smoking is the only positive element in her life - she seriously credits cigarettes with medicinal properties! All I can say is, I pity the poor fools who hold her life insurance policy...
But in many ways, her delusions leave her better off than those people I meet far too regularly who believe they want to quit, yet fail time and again. At least the prism of her addiction has so distorted her outlook that she'll never blame smoking for her problems, even when she has that inevitable heart attack, or gets admitted to a cancer ward.
Surely that's better than knowing the damage you're doing, and acknowledging the need to quit, whilst failing to act? Because far too many people end up permanently disabled or terminally ill, only to then discover that quitting smoking really isn't so difficult after all.
And it really isn't so difficult. Personally, I tried and failed many times, but only when I decided to quit, did I find out how easy it can be. If you seriously want to quit smoking, then it's not something you'll ever try to do, it's something you'll decide to do... And with your motivation in the right place, you'll succeed fairly effortlessly.
But until you reach that place, all your attention should be focused on building up your motivation and determination, so you can get there as soon as possible. And in the meantime, why not cut out the plays? After all, who's your acting really fooling - apart from yourself?
Paul R Mather is a certified hypnotherapist and the owner of Cerulean Therapies, a company specializing primarily in helping people to quit smoking. For more information, please visit http://www.quitclever.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_R_Mather
No comments:
Post a Comment