Could you be a confident quitter and just not know it yet? Plenty of people are, judging by all the ex-smokers who look back and figure it was really no big deal! But then, I guess that even the highest mountain poses no challenge to those who've already conquered it?
How you feel about quitting smoking is of course terribly important, because success or failure is going to be decided entirely in your mind. And in my experience, the greatest harbinger of doom is the word 'last'.
"If I can only last until... " I hear these words all too frequently, from the lips of individuals who have absolutely no chance of successfully quitting smoking this side of a huge psychological reappraisal.
As things stand, they have doomed themselves to failure! And why? Because they have pinned all their hopes on the surprisingly common misconception that their cravings for cigarettes are a purely physical phenomenon, which will eventually disappear, if only they can 'last' long enough...
In actual fact, nicotine withdrawal symptoms are just tiny twitches that you may occasionally feel pulsing around your body. On their own, they cause so little bother that they're hardly even worth noting, and many smokers go through life failing to notice them completely!
It's the special sense of deprivation they trigger, deep inside the mind, that drives smokers to carry on lighting up - and that's something that by no means depends upon them. A thousand other situations can trigger it as well.
Smoking is a form of habitual behaviour, and a smoker will feel driven to light a cigarette in many situations where the body isn't actually demanding nicotine. If this were not the case, then nicotine replacement therapies such as patches would be 100 percent successful, and quitting would be no more arduous than taking a stroll through the park!
To quit confidently, one needs to understand that the challenge is entirely psychological, and that physical withdrawal symptoms simply aren't the enemy - the enemy is within one's own mind!
The great news is that, once this reality sinks in, the whole process of giving up smoking becomes a whole lot easier! Because, just think about it - so long as you're in the right place psychologically on day one, there's no need to worry about how you'll 'last' - you're already there!
So if you're positively looking forward to treating those first, precious moments after you've discarded your final cigarette as the beginning of a new dawn, then congratulations! Because you've already beaten smoking, and what's more you know it. Of course, you're aware there'll be minor challenges ahead, such as not getting too carried away with your ravenous new appetite and piling on pounds, but all in all, you're already in a great new place. You are a confident quitter, whose success is guaranteed.
But if you're reading this with serious doubts - if something's niggling you, especially concerning all that 'lasting' business - then why not take some time out to seriously appraise your approach, question your values and be honest about your motivation?
In the end, nothing pays dividends quite like getting into the right frame of mind before you try and quit!
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
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