Here is a little story I’d like to share about a trigger gone wrong. While I was at the store the other day, the guy in front of me was buying a pack of cigarettes. The “addict” in my mind makes it sound good and tries to trigger me to buy some. I notice the guy almost didn’t have enough money for the pack of cigarettes, as he was digging through his pockets to come up with enough money. He finally pulls out a bunch of change from his pocket, hands it to the cashier and says, “You took all my money and all I have left is 2 pennies”. I had a little chuckle to myself because I fought the trigger by remembering how I used to dig looking for change to buy a pack and glad I don’t have to do it anymore.

You Have the Power to Quit!

Cold turkey has gotten a bad rap as a way to quit. Why? Because the companies telling you how hard it is to quit cold turkey are the ones who make the quit smoking aid products. You see, they want to see you fail because then you will try another of their products and they will make more money. Even if you are successful at quitting smoking by using one of their products, you most likely are now hooked on their product instead of tobacco. So they are still making money on your failure.

Think of it this way: when you quit smoking cold turkey you are essentially running through a sticker bush. You can use a stop smoking product and it will slow your trip trough the sticker bush, but you’re still going to get poked and pricked. So, you can get it over with quick by just running straight through the bush cold turkey or you can walk slowly and enjoy the prickles.

I have a lot of analogies but instead of sugar coating it I’ll just spit it out: Cold turkey is the fastest way to get nicotine out of your system so you can get on with the rest of your life.

Overcome your fear, you have the power to quit!

The hardest part of any quit is the starting so there is no time like the present to stop smoking.  You know you want to do it. Why set a quit day in the future when we both know that will give you x days to come up with excuse for not doing it on that day.  Don’t set yourself up for failure, take a few minutes to prepare then just do it. It really is that simple - 90% of a quit is in your head.

Overcome your fear, you have the power to quit!

Right now I will be talking about a common nicotine withdrawal symptom: IRRITABILITY. When you first quit smoking it’s not going to be peaches and cream. So be prepared for it and embrace it. How often in your life will you have a valid reason to be an ass. While not everyone is the same, I personally try to channel my feeling’s towards the Nicotine industry. The more I research about the smoking and quit smoking industry, the more reason I found to be angry at them.

As far as addiction goes, this is one of the best tricks to ease the mind in the early days.  In your war against smoking it’s best to take it one day at a time.  If your just starting your quit, take it by the hour. Tell your mind “I will not smoke for on hour” then move it to the next hour. Soon a smoke free day will have past. Start this again the next day and after a few days you should be able to move it to one day at a time.

As the first of many posts on PowerQuit.com,  I’d like to say it’s great to be smoke free!  I’m starting this site as an aid for myself and many others who want to quit smoking.  I found a need for a site that was not sponsored by  a major “player”.  You know, the ones who have profits to gain from your continued failure.  “Oh that didn’t work, try this it’s only $49.99 a week”.  While I wouldn’t mind making a few dollars from this site (I spent thousands on cigarettes, it would be nice to make some of it back), the main goal it to stay smoke-free and help others do the same, without the corporation’s goal of keeping you trying.