Some people are reluctant to finally make the decision to stop smoking. It seems so permanent. It may include fear of the unknown or the worry of missing something which was comforting. You are not alone - others feel the same way. I’ll bet some of the things you decided to do in the past did not require 100% motivation, but you accomplished them anyway. If your motivation level goes past 50%, it tips the scale towards success.
Some people use a positive attitude to fuel decisions. Some examples of good self talk: “I’m just not smoking today, and I’ll worry about tomorrow when it comes”; “I’m choosing not to smoke, no one is making me quit”; “I’m doing an experiment to see how my life feels different without smoking.”; “I always have the chance to go back to smoking if I decide to, but for now I don’t have any freedom because the addiction compels me to have to smoke.” I have the ability to reframe my thinking such as: “I’m not giving up something” (smoking is a positive thing that I will miss), but rather, “I am getting rid of something” (I don’t want to be around smoking because it is a negative thing for me).
It is up to me to change my thoughts about smoking as well as my attitude!
The hardest part of quitting for me was the few hours before. It felt like i was about to jump off a cliff, i was terrified that i would change my mind, or that i would miss it or just that im not that kind of person ,im different to people who succeed in stopping. The thought of quitting forever was hard to swallow and to be honest i didnt beleive i wanted to stop. However I did reach the point where i smoked my last cigarette and put on a patch and almost immediately felt a sense of releif, i'd finally done it , no more umming and arring. It was at this point that i now wanted to stop up until the i knew i should stop, knew i had too but it was only when i did that i knew it was the thing for me. After that i just wanted more of this wonderful thing id gotten into.
9 months later im still smoke free.
Mash