Quitting Not Giving Up

At work the other day I was asked by a colleague if I was still "off the fags". I happily replied yes, in fact it has been over 8 months since I quit smoking and I was very proud to confirm that I am still a non-smoker. "Me too" she replied with a big smile and stated that she had quit three weeks ago and was determined to not smoke again. I congratulated her and during our short conversation it was apparent that her mindset had a significant component to it. She stated that she had stopped smoking, not given up smoking. This is a clear indicator of the right mindset to quit smoking. She had recognised the psychological significance of the phrase "giving up". If you give something up then you are denying yourself a pleasure so when smokers decide to give up smoking they are already at a disadvantage and less likely to succeed than the smokers who decides to just stop doing something that is harmful to them. Quitting is simply just that, it is stopping doing something with no loss, you have just stopped an act not given anything up, not made a sacrifice, just stopped.

It is this way of thinking that helped me to quit successfully and I hope anyone reading this who is thinking of quitting or is struggling after quitting finds this helpful. To your sucess in quitting.