Is Cold Turkey the Way to Quit Smoking?

The short answer is yes. I know because cold turkey works for me and I have not had a single cigarette for over 20 years now.

However as with most things in life it's not quite as simple as it sounds because there's a bit more to it than that. Let me start by telling you my own experience.

Like most people who tried to quit smoking it doesn't take long for me to fall off the wagon so to speak and start smoking again. Mark Twain once said, "Quitting smoking is easy, I've done it hundreds of times". I'm sure Mark Twain was trying to be funny but anybody who has tried to quit know how true that statement is.

I've tried many techniques to stop and then it hit me one day. I realized that even though that I stopped smoking in my numerous attempts to quit, psychologically I was still a smoker, albeit one who denies himself the pleasures of smoking. So even though I use all my will power not to smoke, inside, I'm still a smoker.

To give another example, if you are an alcoholic and one day you are thrown in jail, are you still an alcoholic? The answer is a resounding yes. It's pretty obvious that not having access to alcohol does not immediately change the core of the person itself. So my point is, just denying yourself cigarettes will not work. Will power will only get you so far. To really-really stop smoking you have to "be a non-smoker". What that means is that you have to think and have the psychological makeup of a non-smoker.

Have you heard the saying that to be a millionaire you have to think like one? Well it's exactly the same concept. To stop smoking you need to copy the thought patterns of a non-smoker and eliminate the thought patterns of a smoker. In the psychological field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP for short this copying of thought pattern is what is termed as 'modeling'. So the best way to permanently quit smoking is to change your thinking. This is because your thoughts lead to your actions and your actions lead to your results. If you need different results in your life you need to perform different actions and to do that permanently you need to change your thinking pattern. This is the main reason why people fail to quit smoking. Just changing your actions and not your thinking pattern requires a lot of will power and you will be in a constant struggle, but once you've change the old thinking pattern your desired behavior and actions would come naturally and effortlessly.

If you are very observant you'll notice that smokers and non-smokers are two different types of people. For instance, imagine yourself walking into a non-smoking restaurant. You start scanning the patrons at the tables. Can you tell who are smokers and who are not? Most people (especially smokers) can. Now question yourself what behavioral characteristics which are different.

Once you recognize the nuance in thinking and behavior all you need to do is model the thinking pattern of a non-smoker.

Once I recognize this in myself, I instantaneously was able to quit with zero cravings whatsoever and you can too.