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Smokers do not smoke for the reasons that they shouldn’t smoke. In order to quit it is necessary to remove the reasons they do smoke.
As I have said, the real challenge is not to explain why smokers perceive stopping as difficult, but to explain why anybody does it at all.
For thirty-three years my excuse was that it relaxed me, and gave me confidence and courage. I also knew it was killing me and costing me a fortune. Why didn’t I go to my doctor and ask him for something to relax me and give me courage and confidence? I didn’t in case he did. It wasn’t my reason; it was my excuse.
So why do we find it difficult to break a ‘habit’ that tastes awful, that kills us, costs us a fortune, that is filthy and disgusting and that we would love to break anyway, when all we need to do is to stop doing it? The answer is that smoking is not a habit: IT IS NICOTINE ADDICTION!
Boys usually start because they want to appear tough or cool—like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon or Bruce Willis in the Die Hard movies.
In an internal memorandum dated 1971, a Philip Morris executive wrote: ‘The cigarette should be conceived not as a product but as a package. The product is nicotine. Think of the cigarette pack as a storage container for a day’s supply of nicotine. Think of a cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine.’
The whole business of smoking is like forcing yourself to wear tight shoes just to get the pleasure of taking them off.
The main reason that smokers find it difficult to quit is that they believe that they are giving up a genuine pleasure or crutch. It is absolutely essential to understand that there is nothing to ‘give up’.
The real reason every smoker keeps smoking is to feed that ‘little monster’ he has created.
Eight hours after putting out a cigarette, you are 97% nicotine-free. After just three days of not smoking, you are 100% nicotine-free.
The cigarette gets the credit for everything and the blame for nothing.
The moment you stop smoking, everything that goes wrong in your life is blamed on the fact that you’ve stopped smoking.
Cigarettes do not improve meals. They ruin them. They destroy your sense of smell and taste.
I was in control of every area of my life except for smoking. The cigarette was deciding where I could go, what I could do, when I could do it and with whom.
When you start smoking you light a fuse. The trouble is, YOU DON’T KNOW HOW LONG THE FUSE IS.
Quite simply, the key to being a happy non-smoker is to remove the desire to smoke. With no desire to smoke, it takes no Willpower not to do so.
Watch smokers when you get a chance. It’s clear that they don’t particularly enjoy it. You’ll see that they are only happy when they are not aware they’re smoking. Once they become aware they get uncomfortable, self-conscious and apologetic.
Keep it simple. We smoke to feed that ‘little nicotine monster’.
It is ‘just one cigarette’ that, when smokers think they are free, sends them back into the trap.
Whenever you think about smoking you must see it as a lifetime’s chain of filth, disease, fear, misery and slavery.
According to the Smoke Free Movies website, between May 2002 and April 2003, 82% of top grossing PG-13 films featured smoking scenes and half of all the smoking shots were in movies rated for kids. This is up substantially from 1999–2000, when only 21% of the tobacco shots were in movies rated G, PG, and PG13. People tend to be shocked and horrified at such data, but there’s really nothing new here. Hollywood has always been a key channel for the promotion of the smoking message, going back to the days of Dietrich, Bogart and Spencer Tracy.
‘If you haven’t got your health you haven’t got anything’ but it’s true. I used to think that physical fitness fanatics were a pain. I used to claim that there was more to life than feeling fit: like booze and smokes.
Don’t focus on the pang, but on what it represents—the death not of a friend, but of a terrible enemy. One that enslaved you for years and stole your health, your money, your self-respect, your courage and confidence, all the time trying to kill you.
SAVOR EACH THOUGHT AND EACH MOMENT. REMIND YOURSELF HOW WONDERFUL IT IS TO BE FREE ONCE AGAIN AND CELEBRATE THE PURE JOY OF NO LONGER BEING A PRISONER, A SLAVE AND AN ADDICT.
