If You Answer “Yes” To These Three Questions You Are Ready To Quit Smoking

You may have gone out and bought some nicotine gum. You may have made sure that it’s not going to be a stressful week at work. You might even have thrown away all your cigarettes and ashtrays. But are you really ready to quit smoking?

There are many reasons to quit, but if you are not doing it for the right reasons, you have a very slim chance of stopping smoking for good. Nicotine replacement therapies like nicotine gums and patches can help you kick the physical habit, but you will still need a certain level of mental fortitude in order to stop smoking for good. If you are quitting for the right reasons – this mental attitude will come easily. If you are quitting for the wrong reasons your chances of long-term success are slim..

If you answer yes to the following three questions, you are ready to quit:

1. Are you quitting for yourself - not because of pressure from someone else?
2. Have you chosen a date when you want to quit by?
3. Have you thought about what it will be like when you are a non-smoker?

And here’s why these three questions are important:

Are you quitting for yourself?
We all like to feel we are altruistic people willing to make sacrifices for others. However, when it comes to nicotine withdrawal, our brain can be a compulsive devil on our shoulder full of “well one can’t hurt”, “we’ll start tomorrow properly”, “I’ll only smoke half” advice. Deep down we programmed to look after number 1. The thing we care about most is ourselves (hopefully). You need to be quitting for yourself in order to be able to combat the little “cravings devil” on your shoulder. If you are quitting for someone else, your defenses against cravings are weakened because your self-protection mechanisms are not fully engaged.
Have you chosen a date to quit by?
Until you have, all your plans are wishy-washy. You need a goal. You need to write this quit date down and look at it every day until you quit. This technique has proven itself through many successful who have written goals down - then gone on to achieve them. If you don’t believe me, do a web search for “write down your goals”.
Have you thought about what it is like as a non-smoker?
If you answered yes to this question it indicates two things.
1) You are employing visualization to achieve your goal. Visualisation of your goals is another powerful tactic that many successful people have proven to work.
2) You are thinking deeply about quitting and its consequences. You are mentally further down the road to quitting than someone who is just thinking about the act of quitting. You are kind of pre-acclimatising yourself to life after cigarettes and this gives you an added chance of succeeding.
Which ever method of quitting you choose, the above questions hold true. If you choose to quit using nicotine gum or patches, you will need to be mentally ready to fend off psychological cravings once the nicotine replacement therapy has dealt with the physical cravings. If you chose to go to hypnotherapy, being in the right frame of mind can drastically affect its results.
If you do not answer yes to the above questions, don’t worry. Hopefully this article has given you some insight into the mindset you need to achieve in order to quit for good. All you need to do is go away and re-assess your reasons and timelines for quitting. One day you will be smoke free, healthy and happy. n