By Jon James Daniels






I used to be a 40 a day man but I stopped smoking just like that. No gum, No patches and no pills.

I personally never saw what all the fuss was about. For me it was black and white. If I wanted to smoke, I was a smoker. I chose to not smoke therefore I became a non smoker. How could I possibly need a cigarette if I was a non smoker? People who don't smoke don't need cigarettes do they!

In was October 2003. I had just moved into a beautiful new house and I made the decision that there would be no smoking indoors. I went to watching England vs Turkey in a European Championship qualifier down The Pub Oxford. It was before the smoking ban came into effect and I just remember feeling completely and utterly fed up of smoking. The atmosphere was disgusting. I almost choked in a smoke filled room.

Then something happened. David Beckham slipped whilst taking a penalty. It was comical. With regards to the England football team at that time I lost all feeling towards them. No pleasure of us winning, no pain in us losing. Our qualification just became irrelevant.

I never thought much about that moment until I discovered NLP. I always thought I gave up smoking on will power alone with an instant logical decision. Having learnt how to model behavior I realized there was a whole strategy going on when I stopped smoking. I got excited.

I studied several other people who gave up smoking on willpower alone. I noticed a trend. Every each of these reformed smokers had a common strategy in mind.

Everybody who gives up smoking on willpower alone has three things in common.

1) They had a compelling reason
2) They were fed up of smoking
3) They had managed to make smoking irrelevant in their life.

Point 3 was the breakthrough moment simply as it takes all the power away from a smoking habit. Every stop smoking treatment covers points 1 and 2. It is the ability to make smoking irrelevant that will make you stop for good.

Think about a time when you were really looking forward to something. For me I always enjoyed the TV show Lost as I wanted to see what happened next yet once the series finale was over, Lost just didn't matter, it became irrelevant. Likewise in the 80's. The storyline of who shot JR was huge, yet the moment the gunman was revealed, it became irrelevant.

If you try using gum, patches or pills, you are actually giving more power to the habit as you are recognizing it as a evil to fight against. The use of these items gives you a new focus to become addicted to. This method just creates a battle between what you now see as good and evil. A battle ends up just being part of a war and you know already that nobody wins in War.