Keep Motivation to Quit Smoking – Keep Yourself Motivated

No matter whether you just threw away your last pack of cigarettes or haven’t smoked in days, weeks or even months, you still need to remain vigilant and be ready to fight off the next urge to smoke.

Below are some useful techniques that will help you find the motivation to quit and the strength to achieve your goal.

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How to Stay Motivated to Quitting Smoking?

Keep a List of Reasons

Simply knowing that smoking is bad for you isn’t enough to break an addiction. When you decide to quit, make a list of personal reasons that compelled you to make that decision. Perhaps you want to quit for someone you love. Or maybe you want to do it for the sake of your health or for financial reasons. Write everything you come up with on a piece of paper and keep it with you at all times. Make a copy and stick it over your bed. Whenever you crave a cigarette, examine your list of reasons. It’ll help distract you from the craving and will put you in a positive mindset.

Build a Support System

If you’re going to quit smoking for good, you will need to surround yourself with people who want to help you succeed. As soon as you make the decision to quit smoking, tell your friends and family about it. They will do their best to support you through withdrawal and help you move on from the past. Additionally, the more people that know you are trying to quit, the harder it will be for you to just give up and relapse. Making them aware of what you’re planning to do will also ensure that they don’t take your post-quitting mood swings personally. Be clear about your intention and let them know how they can help you.

Perhaps you need a smoking friend to try to avoid smoking around you or just to not let you “bum a smoke” once the cravings get more intense. You may also wish to consider seeing a therapist who specializes in helping smokers quit. Such therapists can help you come up with a game plan and effective ways of dealing with cravings.

Start Exercising

If you’re not exercising regularly it may be hard for you to start just as you’re making another major change in your life, but I promise it’ll be worth it. The dopamine released during physical exercise will aid the chemical imbalance in your brain caused by the absence of nicotine, unless you are using a nicotine replacement therapy or vaping a nicotine-laced vape juice or e-liquid. This will also help you to more rapidly reverse the negative effects smoking have on your health. As your health and constitution improve, this will make you less likely to reach for cigarettes as you won’t want to lose what you’ve already accomplished. Vigorous physical exercise also makes for a great distraction during a craving episode.

Keep a Calendar

Buy a calendar. At the end of every day on which you’ve managed to avoid smoking, mark the date with a big red cross. When you’re experiencing a craving, look at the red streak of cigarette-free days — you won’t want to break it. Marking an accomplishment in a calendar is very satisfying and will help you reflect on your progress.

Don’t Let Yourself Romanticize Cigarettes

Decide that whenever you find yourself imagining the “positive” aspects of smoking a cigarette, you’ll immediately stop that train of thought and think of something else. You’ll be much happier and quitting will be much easier if you don’t let yourself romanticize cigarettes.

Reward Yourself

Quitting smoking isn’t easy—be proud of what you’re accomplishing. Make a point of celebrating small victories such as not smoking for a week or a month, or getting rid of your smoking paraphernalia including your best vape. Congratulate yourself for reaching every new milestone. You could also consider saving up the money you would normally spend on tobacco and using it to celebrate. Treat yourself to a nice dinner or buy some movie tickets or a new CD or DVD.

Don’t Let Yourself Rationalize the “Just One Cigarette”

It’s very easy to rationalize smoking a cigarette. You might think that just one cigarette won’t do you much harm or that after a particularly hard day that’s the only thing that can help you relax. When you learn to identify these irrational thoughts and understand why they’re wrong, you’ll have an easier time dealing with temptation.

Focus On What You Gain, Not What You Think You Might Be Losing

Your attitude is one of the most important factors in determining whether or not you succeed. To stay positive try to avoid thinking about what you’re losing when you quit cigarettes and instead focus on what you’re gaining—or have already gained. Think of your health, the money you’re saving, or the respect your family will have for you.

Believe In Yourself

This advice is by far the most important on this list. Your belief in yourself will be the force guiding you through this challenging process. If you’re having a hard time believing you can do it, think back to what you’ve already accomplished. Quitting isn’t easy but you’ve taken action, convinced yourself to do it, and begun the process. Every day that you’ve avoided a cigarette is a true accomplishment. That’s plenty of reasons to be proud of yourself. Countless people quit cigarettes every year. There’s no reason why you can’t be one of them… 

Slogans that Encourage You to Quit Smoking

For those looking to quit smoking and find some support and encouragement, the catchy phrases of anti-smoking slogans can help. These short and often witty sayings can give people the boost they need to realize the dangers of smoking and start on the path to giving up their addiction.

We’ll break down some of the most common or most popular phrases and slogans and look at how they can help people to quit smoking.

Be smart, don’t start- This is one of the most common slogans, and it is mostly aimed at kids and teenagers, those most likely to encounter peer pressure. The slogan plays on the notion that intelligent people wouldn’t get sucked into the smoking trap.

You’re a fool if you think smoking is cool- This slogan has a similar angle to the previous one. It also fights peer pressure and tries to stigmatize smoking, which was often depicted as something cool people did in movies from the past decades.

Tar the roads, not your lungs- This one alludes to the sticky toxin known as tar that coats the lungs as people smoke. Equating the substance to the tar used in roads can make some people think twice before sticking a cigarette in their mouth.

Too much smoke will leave you broke- This rhyming slogan goes for the wallet and accentuates how much it costs to smoke. Those who are conscious of how much they are spending may want to stop and think about the costs before they start picking up a cigarette.

You smoke, you die early, you save the government money-  It may be on the lighter side initially, as it does offer an amusing notion of smoking. But the dark side is quickly obvious in this slogan. It wants you to laugh a little before you begin thinking about how smoking can kill.

Tobacco companies kill their best customers- This one is aimed at people who are loyal to a particular tobacco company. It’s basically saying that the tobacco companies don’t care about you. They will never know how loyal you are or how much you are buying; they simply want your patronage for as long as you are alive. And once you start smoking, that lifespan is definitely shortened.

Smoking is glamorous if you like deep wrinkles- In the 50s and 60s, smoking was seen as a glamorous pastime for women, but this image has faded away over the years. It has faded in much the same way as the beauty of those actresses has because of their indulgence in cigarettes. The slogan points out that the glamour of cigarettes is only fleeting, and the damage they do will last forever.

Cough Twice for Philip Morris- This slogan plays off the slogan sometimes seen on bumper stickers that ask you to honk if you like the same things they do. But it brings up a powerful reminder that smoking causes emphysema.

Here are 10 of the best quit smoking quotes:

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.Mark Twain
Cigarettes are a classy way to commit suicide.Kurt Vonnegut
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.Aristotle
Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life.Brooke Shields
Smoking I find the most ridiculous of all the varieties of human behavior and practically the only one that is entirely against nature. Can you imagine a cow or any animal taking a mouthful of smoldering straw then breathing in the smoke and blowing it out through its nostrils?Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it dailyZig Ziglar
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.William James
What you are is what you have been, and what you will be is what you do now.Buddha
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing that you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. Lao-Tzu
Published: July 9, 2015 Updated: April 5, 2019


Comments

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5 comments on “Keep Motivation to Quit Smoking – Keep Yourself Motivated

  • Nascha Lecter

    November 1, 2019 at 8:29 am

    Gosh i feel more depressed after watching this.

  • Ivy gasis

    August 29, 2018 at 7:59 pm

    Don’t leave the world just like this, leave after you see the changes and improvement?_stop smoking cigarettes

  • Valentino

    June 26, 2018 at 5:38 pm

    Smoking lessons

  • Donna Gettings Apperson

    March 15, 2017 at 11:34 pm

    Focus on what you gain, not what you are ‘losing.’

  • Sam

    January 3, 2017 at 6:47 am

    Make your goal public and use peer pressure to stay motivated – https://www.publicpledges.com/