I need to discuss reasons with you now. A reason is a justification for an action in support of a belief. You have to do some serious reasoning before you make your mind up and arrive at a belief. Think of your beliefs as a table top and your reasons to quit smoking are the table legs, all supporting the structure. If you have only one reason, it’s like having only one leg to your table. The table will not then be stable, so it will sway and easily topple over. The more legs you place under the table top, the stronger the table top support becomes.
However, you must have the reasons yourself. They will not magic themselves into existence and walk into your mind. Oprah Winfrey, the American television show hostess, puts the thought strongly, and the importance of the observation will become even clearer as we continue. She said: ‘It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.’
It would be wise to remove as many reasons for smoking as you can and at the same time gather as many reasons as possible for stopping smoking. I know you must already have some reasons for quitting smoking and I know they are real reasons and there are many of them. If you had no reasons you wouldn’t be reading this article now. I must stress, however, that you have to have the reasons, and what I am certainly not going to do is tell you all the reasons why you shouldn’t smoke. I’m not going to tell you that smoking is bad for your health, that it causes cancer, that it obstructs your breathing or reduces your life expectancy. I’m not even going to tell you about the money you have squandered and continue to throw away. Right now I’m not going to tell you the reasons why you shouldn’t smoke. You already know them, don’t you? I have said before that I have never known smokers who thought smoking was actually good for them.
Moving away, moving towards
An important distinction is coming up. Decide whether your reasons are that you want to move away from something or move towards something. The distinction is not academic. It’s vital if you are going to stop smoking.
Suppose I ask you: ‘What are you looking forward to as an ex-smoker?’ This is a crucial question and you should think hard about it. You might say by telling me what you don’t want, what you want to get rid of. Like most people, you hate the smell of stale tobacco on your clothes, or the after-taste in your mouth. Or perhaps you would say: ‘I shouldn’t smoke because it makes me short of breath when I’m walking or playing with my children.’ All this is true, of course, but it will be little help in stopping your smoking addiction.
Maybe you’ll see the vital distinction if I tell you these reasons would be ‘moving away from’. In effect, they are negative reasons for deciding to stop the habit. On the other hand, you could say you are looking forward to clean smelling clothes, or a nice fresh taste in your mouth, or that you must quit smoking because you will be fitter and breath more freely when walking or playing with your children or grandchildren. I’d say: ‘Now you’re talking.’ You would have ‘moving towards’ reasons. They are positive reasons.