Become a non-smoker, instead.
Step Two: Develop a Plan
I was never comfortable with the cessation plans of the medical community. I did not want pills or patches. I had tried hypnosis only to find a deeply held aversion to efforts to make me quit smoking. I needed my own plan, but I was not entirely sure what my own plan would include.
The first two steps, I decided, had to be setting a cessation date (March 15, 2010) and boxing myself into my plan by telling everyone that I was going to quit smoking.
This plan led me to a little miracle because if I had continued on my plan to quit smoking, I would not have been successful. Here is what happened. One day my mother and I were waiting for her appointment in the eye clinic. Nearby was another lady with her mother. We chatted, and true to my resolution, I told these strangers that I was going to quit smoking. The lady replied, "No! Don't quit! That is a negative. Become a non-smoker, instead."
As a writing teacher, I instantly recognized the rhetorical truth of what she said. Of course I had never been able to quit smoking. Being a quitter left me as a smoker deprived of that which I desperately wanted. I needed to be a non-smoker, someone who does not want a cigarette!
I spent time talking to myself about my plans, and I reinforced my desire to become a non-smoker by reviewing all those little reasons why smoking is bad. The little reasons helped support the big reason, and I started looking forward to being a non-smoker.
My story continues with Step Three
The first two steps, I decided, had to be setting a cessation date (March 15, 2010) and boxing myself into my plan by telling everyone that I was going to quit smoking.
This plan led me to a little miracle because if I had continued on my plan to quit smoking, I would not have been successful. Here is what happened. One day my mother and I were waiting for her appointment in the eye clinic. Nearby was another lady with her mother. We chatted, and true to my resolution, I told these strangers that I was going to quit smoking. The lady replied, "No! Don't quit! That is a negative. Become a non-smoker, instead."
As a writing teacher, I instantly recognized the rhetorical truth of what she said. Of course I had never been able to quit smoking. Being a quitter left me as a smoker deprived of that which I desperately wanted. I needed to be a non-smoker, someone who does not want a cigarette!
I spent time talking to myself about my plans, and I reinforced my desire to become a non-smoker by reviewing all those little reasons why smoking is bad. The little reasons helped support the big reason, and I started looking forward to being a non-smoker.
My story continues with Step Three
Don't Quit Smoking by Ida is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at dontquitsmoking.weebly.com.