QUIT SMOKING 2 AT WEALTHNUGGETS4U.COM

Let me tell you about how I quit smoking:

I'd dabbled with cigarettes when I was about eleven or twelve but it wasn't until I was nineteen that I started smoking in earnest and subsequently developed my addiction. The place where I worked was full of young people, it was a great place to start your career, the work wasn't too difficult, the people were great and their was a good social life surrounding the company.

It was on one of our work's nights out that I remember being offered a cigarette. That in itself wasn't unusual, I'd been offered them loads of times before but had always refused. I don't know to this day, why I accepted on this occasion but I did and more to the point, the next day I went out and bought my first packet of cigarettes.

It took about six months before I really started craving them, I remember one night turning the house upside down, looking for a cigarette. It was too late to go out and buy any so I searched for over an hour before finally accepting that there were none in the house, I remember feeling so fed up that I just went staight to bed.

I used to smoke about twenty a day but this would rise dramatically at the weekend. Then, my mates and I would go on all day drinking sessions and I'd get through about seventy but I'll discuss alcohol in more detail at a later date but I've been there. we used to go on two and three day benders, I've had the D.T's, hallucinations, drunken brawls, the lot. My reckless behaviour was the main reason I got into personal development in the first place. Anyway, for now let's get back to the story of how I quit smoking.

Twelve years ago for no apparant reason I got up one day and decided that I'd try to quit smoking. I say for no apparant reason but about a month earlier I'd attended a personal development course on self hypnosis, it wasn't connected to overcomming addiction in any way but maybe that course triggered something in my mind, who knows.

Wealthnugget4u:- Quit Smoking: One of the best things I've ever done is learning self-hypnosis. If attending personal development courses and seminars isn't your thing then there are plenty of good books on the subject. Unfortunately we spend more time learning how to programme our DVD recorders than we do our own brains. Give your mind just a little more time and respect and you will be amazed at how it responds.

Two things struck me as unusual whilst I contemplated trying to quit smoking that Sunday morning. Firstly, even though I'd been into personal development for some time back then I'd never seriously considered quitting before, I loved smoking, I enjoyed it, it was part of me, for God's sake!. Secondly, my football team was due to play a crucial relegation decider that day against a much bigger club, I knew there was no way I could get through such a tense encounter without smoking, no way. It wasn't even an option. I remember beads of sweat forming on my brow at the mere prospect of such a thing. I knew that If ever I would need a cigarette It would be that day, the day when the boys were going in to do battle for their premiership survival. No way could I go without a cigarette.

We arrived at the ground about an hour before kick-off, the atmosphere was elecrtic, both sets of fans had turned out in force and the banter between us was hardcore but for the most part good humoured.

I hadn't had a cigarette all day, there'd been a few raised eyebrows at me constantly declining a smoke but instead of telling my friends that I was trying to quit smoking I just brushed it off as not feeling too well due to pre-match nerves.

I'm tempted at this point to go on and describe the game but I wont, not here anyway, so I'll cut to the chase, we lost. (We were robbed and I do mean ROBBED!!!...ROBBED!!!...I must calm down, it WAS twelve years ago...That referee, what a...I'LL STOP IT NOW...deap breaths...I'm okay, thanks, I'll be fine.)

When they scored the only goal of the game, half way through the second half, I lit up without even realising it. I continued to smoke and drink alcohol for the rest of that evening. Going to bed I remember thinking that at least I'd tried to quit smoking that day but I guessed it would probably be at least another couple of years before I got the urge to do so again...Little did I know what the next day held in store for me.

I awoke the next day with a bit of a hangover, we'd drank just a little too much alcohol drowning our sorrows after the game and now I was paying for it. Moreover, it was Monday morning with the week stretching out in front of me. I remember feeling a bit low and then my thoughts turned to my attempt to quit smoking the previous day, I smiled at the memory.

Suddenly, my personal development instincts kicked in and I resolved to give it another go, my mood lifted immediately. Yes, I'd caved in the previous day but I didn't feel like I'd failed at all, on the contrary, I felt pleased with myself, after all I had gone without a cigarette, even if it was for only seven or eight hours.

That was it, I knew intuitively that I'd stumbled accross something, a personal development technique that would increase the likelihood of acheiving good results. I decided that I would attempt to quit smoking a little bit at a time. An hour seemed the easiest timeslot to remember. I would see if I could go an hour without smoking and then have one as a reward for my endeavours.

I realised that day that addiction is all about CONTROL, I decided there and then that nothing, especially a little tube of tobacco was ever going to rule my life again.

These were brave thoughts, noble even but they were afterall just thoughts and I knew that only ACTION would help me to quit smoking for good. The first couple of hours were quite easy and I didn't succumbe to the reward either, I walked out to my car with a spring in my step but then I realised that I always had a couple of cigarettes on the way into work, ALWAYS. The drive in was hard, the taste in my mouth a little strange, I needed NICOTINE. And I needed it there and then.

The day crept by, I've never been a clock watcher but that day I was transfixed by it. On the drive home I din't want a cigarette, I felt drained. I made it through that evening and went to bed early. As I lay their in bed I felt weary, ill and nautious but I also felt strangely elated, I'd done it, for the first time in my adult life I'd gone through a whole day without a cigarette. That acheivement was worth the withdrawl symtoms alone.

The next day was a lot easier, I'm not saying it was a breeze, it wasn't but I got through it, again one hour at a time, when the cravings came I made a promise to myself that I would get to the end of the current hour and then have one if I still felt like it.

I travelled home from work at the end of that week still smoke free. To me that was a major personal achievement. I took a major decision during that journey, one that I still think was critical to me quitting my smoking for good. In those days my then partner and I would go out for a drink two or three times during the course of a weekend. I decided that on that particular weekend I wouldn't go. In fairness, my parter agreed to us having a quiet weekend at home for which I was extremely grateful.

I just knew that seeing all of our friends smoking and drinking would be too much for me and my addiction. After all I'd only given up five days earlier I knew that at that stage of my recovery my resistence wasn't strong enough, I felt vulnerable, I knew that I would feel a lot more confident if I could face the pub with the best part of two weeks abstinence under my belt.

Wealthnugget4u:- Quit smoking: Fear of failure has a lot to do with the amount of success a person achieves in their life. No-one wants other people to think that they can't quit a bad habbit or that they have no willpower or bottle. Forget about other people, they all have their own hang ups to deal with. If you fail then you fail end of story, you learn what you can from the experience and then you move on.

Wealthnugett4u:- Quit smoking: Often to acheive a desired result you must try again and again and again. If you want or need something badly enough you will get it eventually.

My plan worked, I sailed through the folowing week and subsequent weekend. I woke up on the Monday morning exactly two weeks after quitting, an ex-smoker. The reason I say 'ex' and not 'non' is that the temptation always remains. Even after twelve years, I still get the occasional craving but they're now so weak that I don't even have to use the one hour plan anymore.

"Habbit is habbit and not to be flung out of the window by any man but coaxed downstairs one step at a time. Mark Twain. American author and humorist.(1835-1910)

Wealthnugget4u:- Quit smoking. For new webmasters. The above peice of work was formatted around the keywords that are listed below. Google Adwords is a useful, free tool that lists the average number of searches per month at Google for any given word. For the best results use more of your chosen keywords (you're allowed five per page) at the top and bottom of the page and a smattering of them in the middle.

Good luck with your personal development plan,

Regards Andy.

1. Personal-development. = 0.5 million

2. Smoking. = 2.7 million

3. Alcohol. = 2.3 million

4. Addiction = 0.5 million

5. Help. = 3.5 million

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