How to Motivate Someone or Yourself to Quit Smoking

You may have heard this a thousand times: smoking can kill you. You may have seen it on television, where people showcase shrunken lungs, shriveled aortas, and dead smokers who look more like pavement than they do people. You may have been told that your body will break down due to the thousands of poisons in cigarette smoke.

You may have been told that you will grow weak and that you will not be able to exert yourself physically with your bad habits. And you may have been warned against the dangers of cancer, which can go hand in hand with smoking. However, you can’t seem to find the energy, let alone the motivation, to quit. What do you do?

If you are a smoker, then you may want to look at the following tips to get yourself to quit.

- Scare tactics don’t always work, but encouragement can. Look for a friend who is an ex-smoker and ask that friend for two things: first, ask for advice on what you should do in order to quit your habit fast and successfully; and second, ask for that person to be your mentor. He or she can guide you on the road to quitting smoking permanently.

- Talk to your doctor about different methods that you can use to quit smoking. You may be asked to take nicotine patches, drink certain medications, or even go cold turkey, depending on how frequently you smoke. You might also do well to ask your doctor about rehabilitation centers that you can visit and that you can afford.

- Look for rewards that can help you push yourself to quit. You can set personal records: say, if you cut yourself to smoking only three cigarette sticks a day, then reward yourself by going out to watch a movie, or by treating yourself at a fancy restaurant. Look for ways to do negative reinforcement as well: give a lot of money to a charitable organization whose cause you do not favor if you start going back to old habits.

On the other hand, if you want to motivate a friend to quit smoking, then you may want to use the following tips.

- Be encouraging, not pushy. Tell your friend that you really appreciate the person not smoking, and tell that friend that you will be there for him or her while he or she is going through the pains of quitting smoking. Again, scare tactics don’t always work, so don’t fly in your friend’s face and preach about the dangers of smoking.

- Set a good example. Quitting smoking is just part and parcel of living a good and decent lifestyle, so if you are smoking yourself, you have no right to motivate someone else to quit smoking. Live a good lifestyle by working out, going to the gym, eating healthy, and sleeping early. Show your friend that a good lifestyle can equal a good personality by being accommodating and kind. This way, you show, and not just tell your friend that there’s a great life waiting for him or her when he or she quits smoking.

- When your friend starts smoking again, avoid being confrontational. If it’s the first time that it’s happened, talk to your friend and encourage him or her to quit. If it happens more than once, learn to ignore your friend and walk away, in effect showing him or her that you don’t care for them unless they care for themselves first.

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