You might not care about why this book is free. So if you want to skip this chapter, don't. Besides, I do accept donations through my website. So after all is said and done, you've successfully quit and you know you've quit for good, feel free to donate to me whatever it is you pay for one pack of cigarettes, whether it's $3 or $10. Even if you decide to not donate (why give away money, right?), that's fine. I really don't care. I'm just letting you know the option is there. The website address is:
www.quitordie.ca
Speaking of my website, I have armed it with information and tools you can use to help you in your quit. I'll also be adding more as the ideas come to me and as time permits. So stay tuned.
If you're reading this on your Kindle, I must let you know that Amazon won't let me sell this ebook for less than $0.99 and I get a lousy royalty out of it. Whoopee for me!
I Want You To Feel Great!
So why do I care how you feel? Simple. I'm tired of seeing your grumpy face at work, and at the restaurant, and in the library. Seriously, quit smoking already and be happy you don't need a nic-fix.
I feel like a million bucks every day, as long as I get a good night's sleep, and I want you to feel the same way. It doesn't happen overnight though. It does take time.
Honestly, if I could make you feel for one minute how I feel on a daily basis, I would, and you would quit in an instant. The problem is that when you've smoked for so many years, you forget how it used to feel to be a non-smoker. Smoking becomes the new normal and you just accept it as such.
When you first started smoking, that great feeling didn't go away in a day. It took time and many cigarettes. Eventually you forgot about it, and of course you're not going to try to get back what you've forgotten about.
Well I'm here to remind you of that feeling. It's when you wake up in the morning, alive and ready to explore the world. It's when you want to go to the gym or play sports because you love those wonderful little endorphins that course through your body filling you up with life-exploding energy. It's when you've just finished mowing the lawn and you're ready to tackle cleaning the garage because you have extra energy to burn.
I promise that when you quit, you will not feel this way right away. Your body is going to go through a detox process that is going to hurt more than it feels good, at first. For me, it took about three months before I started to feel the positive effects of a smoke-free life, and I would say it was a year before I could look back and really say, "WOW, what a difference!"
Unfortunately, we live in a society of instant gratification and we want our reward now. So right now, you're probably wishing you had quit a year ago. And if you don't quit soon, you might be wishing the same thing a year from now. See what I'm saying? It's going to take a year. Deal with it.
We Are Better Than This
We've made it to the moon, mars and beyond. You're probably reading this on a small hand-held device that picked this book out of thin air like magic. We are transported on ground and by air using technologies that would have seemed unbelievable two hundred years ago. See how much we've accomplished in just the last fifty years or so? And yet, we continue to smoke as if we're cavemen. We are advanced, so let's start acting like it.
I would like to see a humanity that acts in line with our values. Our cultures are as diverse as they are rich, but we pollute our lungs with toxic smoke which is unthinkable. We should have been over smoking since the 1970s, but we're in 2014, and we still smoke when we are capable of so much more. We should be holding ourselves to a higher standard, but for some reason we don't.
You are better than this. You were born perfect, and maybe things happened in your life that were less than perfect (in your opinion), but you are still perfect exactly as you are. So why are you killing yourself?
I Hate The Tobacco Industry
Okay, I have to admit this is fairly personal. I would love it if everyone in the world quit smoking so the industry would die. It's selfish, I know, but you should hate those bastards too for one very important reason:
Tobacco companies only want your money and they don't care if you have to suffer and die for them to get it!
What's worse is your own government profits from the tax collected on cigarette sales, and I don't hear them complaining. If none of this pisses you off, I don't know what will.
Seriously, who do you think you are? Who gave you the right to lie to yourself? When did you start lying? Did others lie to you too, and did you believe them?
You're Better Than You Think
Let me start by saying you are nothing short of spectacular. You are an amazing person who has so much to offer the world. So why the hell are you ruining your life with cigarettes?
What if I told you that you have the potential to bring peace to the entire world? It wouldn't matter because lung cancer would kill you before it happened, and World War III would wipe out the human race a year later..
I could tell you that you'll find the cure for brain tumors, but you'll die of a heart attack instead, and then your mother will die of a brain tumor.
I would love to let you know that you'll invent a new and more stable system of world economics. Unfortunately, you'll suffer from a stroke that will paralyze you and limit your ability to think, and then the world will suffer the worst economic collapse in recorded history and a billion people will starve to death.
You do have the potential to do something great, every one of us does, but very few of us actually believe it. And you know what? If you made a positive difference in the life of just one person, that would be incredible. Yet you smoke, and by doing so, you're basically saying that a cigarette is more powerful than you. How is this possible?
If you have the power to do great things, and I know you do, then you can quit smoking. It's really that simple!
Nevermind What They Say
Do your friends or coworkers ever tell you it's hard to quit smoking or that you'll never do it? I used to have a friend like that. He would always tell me I could never quit, and laugh about it. Yeah, he's not my friend anymore, but your friends can be wrong.
Besides, what the hell do they know about you? Sure they know you, but only you know yourself better than anyone. So why would you believe what others say about you? When you do, you're just giving your power away. Don't do it! Believe in yourself, please.
Growing up, my friends would make fun of me and tell me I was dumb. So I did the only thing I could do. I ignored them, got myself a university degree, developed awesome woodworking skills (my hobby), developed my computer programming skills, and just for fun, I quit smoking and became an author.
Just remember one thing; a million people CAN be wrong. An entire nation can be wrong. Definitely listen to what others have to say, but arrive at your own conclusions based on what YOU think, not what others say.
They're All Excuses
I'm going to put this as politely as I possibly can. If you told me you have a perfectly good reason for not quitting, I'll tell you you're full of shit. How did I do?
Unless you tell me that you actually love smoking and you have no intention of quitting, you're full of shit. Of course, you're reading this, so I have to assume you want to quit. There is no such thing as a good excuse to not quit smoking. I'm living proof of that, as I'm sure many others are as well.
I don't care if you tell me you're dying of a broken heart, or that you lost your dream job, or that you can't afford college. By the way, I could tell you why you can't afford college, but.. never mind. Whatever your excuse is, please do yourself a favor. Slap yourself upside the head and grow up. You aren't a kid anymore. At least I hope you aren't.
True adults are able to do extraordinary things, and quitting smoking isn't one of them, because quitting isn't extraordinary. It's actually quite simple. Any adult is able to quit smoking. If you're twenty and you can't quit smoking, you are not an adult. If you are sixty and you cannot quit smoking, you are not an adult.
Remember this. An excuse is just a sugar-coated lie. So every time you use an excuse to keep smoking, you're just lying to yourself, which is really the worst kind of lie if you believe it. Do yourself a favor and ask yourself how much truth there really is in the excuse you're feeding yourself. I'll bet you'll be surprised by the answer.
Remember When You Were Young?
I know you're addicted to cigarettes now, but there was a time when you didn't smoke and didn't even think about cigarettes. So that proves you can live without them.
You might counter with, "Yes but I'm addicted to nicotine now. There is a difference." I would agree with you, but an addiction only has power when it is constantly fed. So, yes it is true you can't live comfortably without them when you first quit, but eventually it becomes very comfortable, even enjoyable, more enjoyable than smoking.
That uncomfortable feeling you experience when you go off nicotine does eventually go away, and you develop healthier coping strategies to help deal with life's ups and downs. If you were able to cope with stress as a non-smoker, you can once more as a non-smoker. Please don't tell me you need cigarettes to deal with stress because that's bullshit and just another lie.
I get stressed out and I have three coping techniques: meditation, yoga, and my personal favorite, my punching bag. So let me weigh my options. I can have a cigarette, ruin my health and feel like dog crap, or I can take out my frustrations on my punching bag and get a great workout in the process. Do either of these choices scream at you?
You Owe This To Yourself
They say life is short, but if you think about it, eighty years is a really long time. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life hacking up yellow gunk, smoking in forty below weather, and working just to pay for your addiction? Don't you want a little bit more out of life? Aren't you worth the effort? Seriously, are you not worth the effort?
I promise you, you will not regret quitting. You will hate me in the beginning because of the discomfort, but you'll thank me in the long run. You will look back a year from now and ask yourself, "Damn, why was that so hard?" You'll ask that because in a year from now, not smoking will be so easy. You won't even think about it anymore. It will be a non-issue. And when it does happen to cross your mind, you'll look at this thought and wonder what it would feel like to have another cigarette. Then you'll remember everything you have to lose and that will be the end of it.