Bargains and promises I made with myself
1. A month before I quit I decided I would say "'I'm going to wait a little longer" before I smoked a cigarette.
By doing this, I eliminated all the automatic cigarettes and went from 20 a day to 5 a day.
2. During that month I promised myself my only excuse to go ever back to smoking was if a tragic accident took my wife and daughter.
Pretty severe I know, but, this placed a strict boundary in my mind.
3. When I stopped using the patch after two days of forgetting to put one on, I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself I would put it on, rather than smoke.
That patch stayed in my wallet my first year. I never needed to use it.
4. I promised myself I wouldn't put myself in risky situations.
This was pretty easy for me because the only person I was around that smoked didn't go to bars with me and California already had the strictest laws about smoking in public or in restaurants and bars. I believe most states now have those same restrictions.
What are you doing to begin or keep your quit?
