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The Surefire Way to Quit Smoking + 3 Facts

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This isn’t a post about why smoking is bad for your health. Everyone knows this already. Smoker or nonsmoker, you’re not a complete imbecile right? 🙂 Moving on…

There are a few personal victories that I pride myself with. One of them is kicking the habit or “becoming a non-smoker”. It is a resumé-worthy acheivement – anyone who has tried quitting would agree on this. I’m know I’ve failed at least 4 times until I found what worked.

As a reference, I was a regular smoker for a solid three years. My habit started casual, social-only smokes, then quickly escalated to 15 smokes/day.  If you’re serious about becoming a non-smoker, pick up Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking. The best $10 you’ll spend – ever. If you don’t believe me, check the Amazon reviews for yourself. His method works…because it makes so much f**king sense!  Also, instead of “quitting”, which inherently sounds as if you’re losing something (you’re not losing shit), you’re simply becoming a non-smoker. This is NOT about willpower. With willpower alone, you’re most likely to fail anyway. Willpower is HARD too – “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”.  A better approach: focus on the mindset and thoroughly understand what really makes you smoke your next cigarette.

I promise, life as a non-smoker is 100 bajillion times more amazing. Save life for the good stuff and regain control of yourself. (That’s coming from a guy who couldn’t eat a meal without a minimum of two stoges (one before, maybe two after). Sad thing about being a smoker: you’re never truly satisfied.  When not smoking a cigarette, you wish you could smoke. When you are a smoking a cigarette, you really wish you weren’t.

3 Facts you must know about becoming a non-smoker (source: Alan Carr’s book)

#1) Understand the Nicotine Cycle
As a smoker, you are a slave to nicotine. Firstly, nicotine is a stimulant that triggers your brain to produce endorphins at a higher level. It makes you feel good, though there are certainly many other things/activities that make you feel amazing too (*wink*) . Otherwise the rest of the world (non-smokers) would be walking around depressed! The main problem is, nicotine is highly addictive and the body will quickly build tolerance so that more and more is required for the same effects. After a cigarette, nicotine enters the bloodstream via the lungs. The cycle has started. The euphoric effects of nicotine last about 40 minutes max. You actually start physically craving 90 seconds after your last drag! After the body runs out of “precious” nicotine, it will feel physically and emotionally imbalanced. This is where the physical craving begins. When you smoke another cigarette, another cycle beings. And when that nicotine depletes, the body feels imbalanced, and the cravings begin. And it continues… Cigarette to cigarette. The body will never be satisfied because it’s going from full to empty. But this is not a cycle that non-smokers experience at all.  They don’t have to supply anything because there is nothing missing, thus, no craving for the next dose of nicotine/the next cigarette. They’re content and functioning properly without it, enjoying all the highs of life.  It’s like comparing someone who wears contacts vs. someone who’s had LASIK surgery, expect contacts don’t kill you, but I digress.

#2) You’re either a smoker or a non-smoker, period.
If you casually smoke, even one or two cigarettes a month, or even one on the most special of occasions, you’re a smoker. The reason being is because you’re still mentally conditioned and open to initiating nicotine cycles. This is a dangerous place to play, especially for an avid smoker. Say Bob successfully kicked the habit, and he’s gone through the temporary physical withdrawls – he’s in the clear right? True! Bob is rid of all actual physical cravings. Enjoy that Bob!  But on his birthday, Bob decides one cigarette won’t hurt. Now he has initiated a nicotine cycle. Sweet, because one measly cigarette, Bob has to fight and experience cravings. Also, there’s a real risk of smoking another cigarette. Point of the story, if you’re going to transition into a non-smoker, be a non-smoker. Even if you tell yourself, “I’m not craving at all!”, you are craving. The craving of nicotine is a physical reaction, so cut the BS, Chuck Norris.

#3. Brainwashing
We get that nicotine is a physical addiction right? But now there is the brainwashing that comes with cigarettes. Over the past century, we have been fed images and ideas to circulate the false illusion that cigarettes make experiences and events “better”. For example, a convinct about to get the electric chair, what does he want? One last cigarette of course. Or the victory cigar. Or how about how artists/creative folk use the cigarette for imagination? It goes on and on. Smokers feel as if life without cigarettes would be dull, boring, or will never be as amazing. Key takeaway:  it’s not the cigarette that makes the experience special, it’s the experience itself. Do away with the fear of not being able to smoke on those special occasions. Birthday, graduations, even last night’s dinner isn’t special all of a sudden just because of a single cig.

Non-smokers have it awesome, I’m not going to sugarcoat it.  Personally, as a non-smoker, my productivity is of another realm (more brain to focus with, more oxygen, etc), I’m MUCH healthier/sexier (235lbs -> 165lbs), and (the best part) I don’t think/worry about the next cigarette.

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Open Your Mind, Start Living, And Be Awesome

“A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension.” – Oliver Wendell HolmesImage

Up to the end of last year, I’ve lived my life in the same way. If I had to describe it (in hindsight), I would use the words “arrogant”, “competitive”, “comparative”, and “entitled”. If you were to ask me then, I would’ve most likely used “bold”, “different”, and “interesting”. Scary how different those people sound!  I lived with a completely different mindset than I do today. The world I lived in is universally juxtaposed to the world I live in today. And the life I live is as if I’ve never even lived… until now.

This post is really about when one emulates qualities and lingers in the currently closed, more comfortably familiar mindset rather than taking the risk of living in the truth of it all. In other words, you might see yourself and the rest of the world in a certain light. It’s really up to you if you want to see it for what it really is. There is no wrong answer due to the fact that everything you choose to experience is, in fact, the truth.

A simple example: If I told you Miranda Kerr asked me out on a date. You’d probably think “Yeah right…” and wouldn’t believe me. In result, you consider it as false. Therefore it never actually happened right? So regardless if she asked me out or not, it isn’t real…to you.

Life is defined by your experience. You can see it under different microscopes with different tints of light, and that’s what will be true to you. But I’d urge you to step out of your current mindset and try to take it for what it is. When you’re open to other ideas, other outlooks, everything shifts. In regards to my life, I just started living. Sometimes I take the “blue pill” and shift attention to what I want to see, thus, it becomes my reality. I use this for combating negativity and it works wonders. When negative things come my way, they just slip past me. I remain unaffected and continue moving forward. It’s as if it never happened at all. I’ve wasted no effort, heartache, or energy on the thought. In result, I’m able to focus on more important things.

That’s just my take and implementation…you’ll find what makes you happy and keeps your wheels spinning.
Embrace the idea: you control what reality is, and ultimately, the life you live.

For more insight and enjoyment, watch The Matrix and you’ll see this idea flow throughout the whole trilogy.

“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” -Morpheus in The Matrix

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