gehen2018 - I read his book twice and appreciated the point he was making, but his approach proved a little beyond what I could reach right now. Turning on cigarettes on a dime and going from smoking and desiring them (the addiction at it's worst) to hating them and everything they represent (Alan Carr's way of walking away "easy") is a great mind over matter trick.
I don't doubt he pulled it off. In the book he talks about smoking 100 cigarettes a day. If I had been smoking 100 a day I bet I could have mustered up a bit more hatred for them, but I wasn't.
Don't get me wrong - I think his approach is right. You have to get to a point where you hate smoking and the cigarettes but for me it isn't happening overnight. I still struggle and have to keep forcing myself to embrace the right way of thinking about quitting. It's work and it damn sure isn't easy. But that's ok.
The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to stop looking for ways to bash on yourself. I felt a little bad about not being able to embrace Alan's approach to quitting because I wanted it to be easy too. But I couldn't and that's ok. I'll do this the hard way. But what I won't do it turn on myself, heap on the guilt and doubt and drive myself back to buying a pack in despair and hopelessness. F that noise.
Alan had an easy way to quit smoking and I'm glad for him. My way is harder and that's ok. Yours will be different and that's cool as well. As long as you and I don't fire up again we win and whatever way we use to get there is right.
And then we can write a book.
