Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - Allen Carr [67]
Another classic example of a false incentive is the bribe (e.g. the parent offering the teenager money to remain smoke-free or the bet, ‘I’ll give you $100 if I fail.’). There was once an example of this in a TV program I was watching. A policeman attempting to quit using willpower put a $100 note in his cigarette pack. He had a pact with himself. He could smoke again, but before he did so, he had to set light to the $100 bill. This stopped him for a couple of days, but eventually he burned the note. I wouldn’t have lasted twenty minutes.
Stop kidding yourself. If the $150,000 that the average smoker needs to earn to finance his addiction won’t stop him, or the one-in-two risk of contracting a life-threatening disease, or the lifetime of mental and physical slavery, then what chance does a $100 bill—or any other false incentive—have? False incentives make quitting harder, not easier, because they force us to focus on the illusory sacrifice the smoker makes. Keep looking at the other side of the tug of war. The side based on facts, not fear.
What is smoking doing for me? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Why do I need to do it? YOU DON’T! YOU ARE ONLY PUNISHING YOURSELF.
CHAPTER 32
THE EASY WAY TO STOP SMOKING
This chapter contains instructions about the easy way to stop smoking. Providing you follow these instructions, you will find that stopping ranges from relatively easy to enjoyable!
It is ridiculously easy to stop smoking. All you have to do is two things.
1. Make the decision that you are never going to smoke again.
2. Don’t mope about it. Rejoice.
You are probably asking, ‘Why the need for the rest of the book? Why couldn’t you have said that in the first place?’ The answer is that at some stage you would have moped about it, and consequently doubted your decision. You would have been forced to use Willpower and, as a result, most likely would have failed.
As I have said before, the smoking trap is a very subtle and sinister one. The main problem in quitting is not the chemical withdrawal, which is barely even noticeable, but the brainwashing and it was therefore necessary to explode those myths and illusions. Understand your enemy. Know his tactics, and you will easily defeat him.
I spent thirty-three years trying to stop smoking the hard way and suffered seemingly endless weeks of black depression. When I finally broke free I went from a hundred cigarettes a day to zero without a single bad moment or pang of regret. I even enjoyed the withdrawal period because I saw it for what it really was—a barely noticeable feeling in the pit of my stomach, which was a signal that the ‘little monster’ was dying. The truth of the matter is that stopping smoking is the most wonderful thing that has happened in my life.
I couldn’t understand why it had been so easy and it took me a long time to work it out. It was this. I knew for certain that I was never going to have to smoke again. During my previous attempts, no matter how determined I was, I was basically trying to stop smoking, hoping that if I could survive long enough without a cigarette, the urge would eventually go. Of course it didn’t go because I was waiting for something to happen, and the more I moped about it, the more I wanted a cigarette, so the craving never went.
My final attempt was different. Like all smokers nowadays, I had been giving the matter serious thought for some time. Up to then, whenever I failed, I had consoled myself with the thought that it would be easier next time. It never occurred to me that I might have to go on smoking for the rest of my life. This thought filled me with horror and started me thinking very deeply about the subject.
Instead of lighting up subconsciously, I became more aware of my smoking and began to analyze my thoughts