Don’t think about it. Do it.

A year ago, Paul had booked us into the Alan Carr Clinic.
We’d discussed it, and we’d decided to give up smoking.
And that’s the last time you’ll see me refer to this as “Giving up”, because… I didn’t give up smoking.
Yes, you saw that right. I said I didn’t.

One year on, I am still a non smoker.
I stopped smoking. That’s the difference.
If you keep telling yourself that you’re giving up, you’ll never do it. So go and rewire your brain.
You give up strawberries. You give up chocolate.
You stop smoking.
If I told you to eat dirt, would you say you’d stop eating dirt, or you’d give up eating dirt?

Okay that was step 1. Stop giving up. Just stop. Period. You’re going to have to rewire your brain a bit probably, but it’s doable.

Step 2 is simple too. Ignore what everyone tells you. As long as you are comfortable with the way you’ve stopped - keep doing it.
For instance, I used a real cigarette, drenched in peppermint oil, and sucked on that sometimes. Not because I wanted a cigarette, but because the activity helped me to think. Everyone was flapping about it.
I still have that ciggie. I have no desire to smoke it.

Go cold turkey. It might sound hard, but it’s not that bad. Yeah, you get a craving every now and then, but it’s more for the action of smoking than for the nicotine.

Still… I am amazed at myself. I did it. I will keep doing it.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I figured it was worth mentioning.