Quit Smoking Now - Don't Put It Off!

Most of us have a habit of putting off things for another day. This habit is the guardian angel of smoking. As long as we have the habit of procrastination, we are never going to stop.

The funny thing about procrastination is that we only tend to postpone unpleasant tasks. The good things in life we try to do as early as possible, and the things that involve hard word, giving up comforts, or a little bit of pain, we try to put off till the last possible date.

The dangerous thing here is that, in the case of most smokers, there is no real last possible date. Many people become serious about quitting smoking after a first heart attack or a stroke.

You need to get a grip on yourself. You are much stronger than you think - so why postpone giving up? There is no better day than today. Quit smoking today and you can increase your chances of succeeding and …gulp … surviving!

If one of your friends were to approach you with a problem and ask you to help think of the most sensible decision to make, wouldn't you do that for them? Now, if you would do that for a friend, shouldn't you be able to do it for yourself as well? If you are capable of taking sensible decisions for others, don't you owe it to yourself to take sensible decisions as far as your own health is concerned?

The Voice Within

You might not believe this, but the fact is that you always wanted to stop smoking. Deep down inside, a plaintive voice has been calling out to you to quit smoking, and you have been heeding it - but you just haven't done anything about it so far. You have convinced yourself that you will stop smoking at a later date. This promise, false though it might be, was enough to subdue that inner voice. The voice cried out and the response it got was...

"Well, I didn't say that I wasn't going to stop smoking, did I? Just give me the time and I will do it. I know what is good for me, so don't nag."

And that silences the inner voice. But that later date never comes. It's just a way of convincing yourself that you can stop if you want to, but certain external factors are hindering your efforts.

You can start the quitting process by doing some paperwork again. You have to have a very clear idea about why you want to quit, and the best way to find out why is to sit down with a piece of paper and write down exactly why you want to stop. Your list should include things like:

• To save yourself from the hazards of smoking.
• To gain better control over your life.
• To increase your self esteem.
• To set a good example to others - especially children, because if you smoke there is a very good chance that they too will become smokers.

But the most important point that you should put down is that you want to quit in order to make it healthier and safer for those who live around you, especially your friends and family. You really owe it to them!

The next section is: Passive Smoking