Just celebrated 12 years: if I can do it, anyone can!

I started young. Everyone smoked: mum, dad, older brother. I was destined to be a smoker from day one. When I celebrated my 40th, I also "celebrated" 25 years as a 25 pack a day smoker: proper ciggers too, 16mg ones. I knew I had to quit, but I'd failed so many times that I was convinced I never would. Working in the hospitality industry made it all the more difficult. The gums and patches had all failed and I convinced myself that I'd die a smoker, yet within a fortnight I'd quit. How? By willpower. But you have to prepare yourself. First, it is absolutely essential that you convince yourself that you can do it. That is the key. There's a lot of negativity around quitting..."you'll never do it", "it's so hard", it's easier to quit heroin", "you can't do it without the help of x,y, or z", all this does is convince you that you can't do it. You really need to shrug all that nonsense off and believe in yourself. Trust me, it's not difficult, you won't put on weight, you won't be impossible to live with and you won't get terrible cravings. So don't talk yourself into believing that you will. The human mind is a powerful weapon. Get yours to work for you, not against you. It really is that easy once you have convinced yourself. YOU CAN DO IT.

Good luck.