PUBLIC MARKS from cybereel

Now you are ready to move on to the next action item in the process of quitting smoking: Create a list of strategies to beat the cravings. You must prepare for the obstacles. There are two types of addiction that you must cater for: the biological addiction to nicotine and the behavioral addiction to smoking.

Many have made several attempts to quit smoking but they all 'failed' or so they may have believed at the time. In fact, in hindsight they may not have realized that those attempts were not failures. Each attempt was a practice attempt that would have taught you something new about what was needed to be done to be successful at quitting this habit.

The techniques outlined in this series are designed to help you quit smoking. I know first hand just what a painful agonizing struggle it can be. Many people are smokers who wish daily to be non-smokers yet can't seem to find their way to achieving that goal. In puuting into practice what you read, you will succeed at quitting smoking.

You must realize by now that success is almost totally an issue of the mind. Success or failure depends on what YOU decide to do. You have identified the goal, you have made a plan, you have made preparations, and you have committed yourself, changed your environment and kept positive people around you.

Changing your environment is an essential element of success. It is one of the reasons that drug rehab centers and boot camps exist. But you need not go to those extremes to achieve your goals. Small changes will work wonders. There are two types of changes that you need to make: positive changes and negative changes.

Another critical element of success in achieving your goals is to make a commitment. Again this may seem obvious but without a commitment you are almost certain to fail. Why people fail to achieve their goals One of the primary reasons that people fail to achieve their goals is a lack of commitment.

Now you have your top three goals. You know where you want to go and what you want to achieve. So how do you get from here to there? If you are in Miami and you want to get to the Met opera in New York, what do you do? You plan a route. You decide on a means of transport (by plane, car, bus, train, foot) and then map out a route.

In order to achieve your goals you must first identify them. This may seem like a silly obvious statement. After all, how can you hit a target you do not have? How will you even know if you have hit it if you don't know what it is? But can you tell me right now what your goals are? Can you identify your top three goals without any deliberation?

Are you a negative person or a positive person? Do you believe that positive people are in denial and ignoring reality? Do you believe that being positive is silly, unrealistic and ignorant?