Every culture has a proverb that stresses the importance of health. So, if “Good health is above wealth”, how come you smoke. How come we drink alcohol, live in polluted cities, stress over work and enjoy other benefits of civilized existence?
The answer is simply because we are stupid. You, me and everyone else have the same flaw. Most innocent manifestation of this flaw would be a decision to continue watching that show although it is already late and you have to go to work tomorrow.
We are just terrible at planning the future. You might have a plan for big things like pension, mortgage, etc., but if you think about it - you still make decisions that don’t make much sense. You run up credit card debt, stay up too late and you smoke. You do these things now because you don’t want to deal with this now. It is the future-you who will deal with it.
Everyone knows that smoking increases chances of cancer, ages skin and wreaks havoc all over your body but you don’t have to deal with it. This will be the problem of future-you.
Unless you are currently dealing with smoking caused illness and unless you were specifically instructed to change your smoking ways or you will die - only such direct danger can push us to action.
I remember being ill with bronchitis. This would happen usually twice a year by the way. Doctor would tell me that this is directly caused by smoking, that I will get this regularly and it will get only worse. This happened year after year but while I was coughing my lungs out I would think that one smoke wouldn’t really make it any worse - anyways I was already ill.
So I would be smoking while coughing out stuff and the best part is - smoking usually increased intensity of coughing so I would say to myself that smoking was actually helping me “clean out the lungs”.
You might have to put on your list of reasons such gems as - I will feel better, I will be able to breath more easily, I will decrease risk of cancer and so on in that fashion. These are all great reasons but they are in the future and this is a problem.
You are here and now so all these perks will be enjoyed by future-you. You won’t feel them - he or she will.
Another problem of basing a decision to live a smoke free life is that health is not completely in our hands. Matter of fact is that we have to play with a hand we are dealt with.
Health depends on what you put into your body, how you use it and what you inherited from your parents. This might actually be the reason why you are smoking as one of the things we inherit is tendency towards addictions.
This comes into play especially once you start feeling craving.
Your brain just wants its fix so it will start telling you that it doesn’t matter if you smoke or not - some people get lung cancer even without touching a cigarette in their lives. Your brain doesn’t care that direct link between cancer and smoking is a very well established fact.
Our brain is great at thinking new and exciting ways to keep you from working and from changing behaviors. Once it will detect that it didn’t get its daily fix your brain will get to work trying to fool you. It won’t be for long but it is critical for you to be able to stand your ground against your own brain.
Again, health is a very good and very important reason to do not only this but other adjustments to your lifestyle.
I have mentioned that I tried to clean up my lungs few times and at that time as craving kicked in I would say to myself that I feel fine, my health is actually rather good and occasional seasonal illness is normal, and cancer - that’s pure genes.
It’s the same thinking that keeps lotteries in business, only other way around. In lottery you think - yeah, only one in a million will win but it can as well be me. With smoking you think - yeah, I might get cancer or stroke but some people who smoke do not get them and some have never touched a cigarette and got stroke or cancer. .
You think and every other smoker believes “It won’t happen to me.” Only once you are smoke free for some time you start realizing idiocy of such thinking.
I remember some time ago a test was conducted. It was tested what message did influence smokers the most. People were tested with various messages like “Smoking causes cancer”, “Smoking causes heart attacks and stroke” and other. The test revealed that both men and women weren’t scared by stroke or lung cancer.
This test revealed that men were most efficiently influenced by the fact that smoking causes impotence and women - that smoking causes aging and dark spots.
Put health benefits on your list of reasons but remember that these reasons will have to withstand reasoning of an addicted brain. You will have to remind yourself that it is not some mythical future-you that will reap in the benefits, it is you-you.
Once you go smoke free, health improvements happen very quickly. Already by the end of a first day you will feel significant improvements in how you feel. Focus on this and if your brain tries to fool you remind yourself that it doesn’t matter that you might not get or get diseases either you smoke or not. Life is a game of odds but by smoking you needlessly decrease them.
Now when you see that you might need other reasons to keep you motivated you might turn to another go-to reason on any list - money.