The morning begins with an alarm clock. Or rather, with the dreadful feeling of interrupted sleep. But even that doesn't matter. What matters is lifting my head from the pillow and finally getting out of bed for work. After some effort, I finally get up.
I walk to the kitchen, trying to fit neatly into the doorframes along the way. It's not going well, but eventually, albeit not entirely successfully, I crawl to the kitchen. And then I see them. Thin, elegant, stylishly presented, deliciously named, and beautifully arranged in a pack, they lie in the center of the kitchen table, beckoning, beckoning…
Thoughts begin to race through my sleepy mind: “Who left them here? Why? I don't smoke… What? I don't smoke? Well, I can have the last one!” And then my greedy fingers reach for the pack, and with a familiar click it emerges, so thin and white, fragrant, even delicious… Damn it…
“I hate you!” I think matter-of-factly, watching the scarlet bud of a cigarette butt drift from me to the ashtray and back again. And then another thought comes, tearing the previous one to shreds: “I need to take the whole pack with me…”
If you're a long-time smoker, you're probably familiar with the sad picture I've painted here. Almost everyone has made at least one feeble attempt to quit . Why feeble, you ask? Because 99% of the time, these attempts fail. The most we can do is cowardly cover our mouths with our hands and squeak privately to our best friend, “You know, I want to quit…”
You'll say I'm exaggerating? Of course! But still, try counting how many times you or your friends and family have tried to do this and failed. And the secret is ridiculously simple. They couldn't because they didn't want to. However, let's leave that aspect to philosophers and psychologists. I'm talking about something else.
To make things easier for the reader, I'll once again present my thoughts in a simple, easy-to-read list. So, having decided to quit smoking:
1. Be sure to find photos of a smoker's lungs online. Visualize, vividly and as vividly as possible, the same gunk now lurking in your body. Moreover, the picture gets worse with each passing day…
2. If the first step doesn't work, move on to heavier artillery. On the streets, start looking longingly for elderly people smoking cigarettes. It's rare, but it does happen. When you see an old man coughing or a forty-something woman dried out from nicotine (and that's exactly what women who smoke for a long time look like), be sure to try it on for yourself. At the very least, you'll feel uneasy. At the very most, you'll want to spare yourself such an unpleasant future.
3. Find specialized literature or video tutorials that have helped many people overcome a similar problem. Read or listen to them and take note. At least.
4. Develop your willpower. Say it in a way that you'll hear first: “I don't smoke. Period.” That's right – I don't smoke. Not “quitting” or “smoking less,” but “I don't smoke.”
5. Now this advice is a bit humorous, but, as my friends and acquaintances have shown, it's effective. Fall in love. Or find a girlfriend/boyfriend (husband/wife) who will take on your difficult mission of quitting smoking. As soon as you pick up a cigarette, your spouse will surely pounce on you like a swift-winged falcon or a disheveled fury and tear that vile, filter-tipped bastion of evil from your yellow-nailed smoking fingers. Believe me, after a few arguments or tantrums, you'll lose the desire to smoke. At the very least, in the presence of a “domestic policeman.” At the very least, completely.
6. Find or create your own reference group. A reference group is a social group that serves as a standard for an individual, a frame of reference for themselves and others, and a source of social norms and value orientations. This is according to the Encyclopedia of Sociology.
A reference group is a group of people whose opinions matter most to you. That's what I'm saying. And it doesn't matter who these people are: your friends, distant relatives from Samarkand, children, grandchildren, neighbors, or every president of Botswana combined. The main thing is that they actively condemn your bad habit and passionately (at least passively) want to rid you of it.
7. Praise yourself for every missed cigarette. And reward yourself. Only you can decide how to reward yourself. The main thing is that your reward is worth the sacrifice of another dose of poison.
That's basically it. I'm just a little tempted to believe that after reading this article, someone will develop a strong desire and belief in the possibility of quitting smoking. Some will say it's all nonsense and won't help. And someone will write in the comments: “Author, so how do you actually quit smoking?” Seriously, reader, how?