7 Tips to Quitting
Posted on May 1, 2008
Filed Under Addiction |
You might be a pure and untainted individual, but I’ve been a chain smoking, pot inhaling, hard drinking woman most of my adult life. Fortunately though, I’ve quit all that foolishness and moved onto better habits: eating, exercising, blogging and the occasional shopping spree. (Well, I can’t change everything at once, can I?)
It’s been about 10 years since I stopped the booze and drug habit, and people often ask me how I did it. So, I thought I’d compile a list of tips that helped me quit and stay quit! Feel free to add to it if you think I’ve missed something.
1. Set a Goal
This first tip is regularly seen at the top of most “To Do” lists and there’s a reason for that: it works! Choose the date, set the dollar amount or decide the perfect weight. It’s easier to accomplish something if you know exactly what it is you want to achieve. And, even better, you’ll know when it’s time to celebrate! (I’m still a big believer in parties but now they involve lots of chocolate!)
2. Right Up Front
Goals are great but it’s best to keep them first and foremost in our mind in order to achieve them. A solution that worked for me was to have visual reminders anywhere I could get away with them. Tape that picture on the fridge with the ideal weight and date written on it. Write your quit date on each and every pack of cigarettes that you buy. Slap that credit card bill on your mirror and scribble “zero balance” across it. Whatever your goal is, keep it right there in front of you as much as possible.
Oh and don’t forget about our ability to zone out to these reminders after a week or so. So, move them around or change the color of the paper, but do anything to make it different enough to keep your attention.
3. Visualization
Similar to the last point but different enough to warrant its own space is visualization. It’s common to train athletes to visualize winning and if it works for them, why not for the rest of us? Visualize your success! Imagine how great it is not to smell of nicotine. Revel in that sexy little dress you look so great in. See the extra money in your wallet after your gambling debts are paid. Whatever it is, keep running that scenario through your mind until you successfully cross the finish line.
4. Change Related Habits
Related habits are known as triggers in the 12 step world. If you want to stop a certain behavior, it’s easier if you avoid that which reminds you of it. If stopping at the wine bar is a regular occurrence on your way home, go a different route. If you light up each time you hop into the car, pop a stick of gum in its place. If you raid the fridge late at night, make a pot of decaffeinated tea instead.
5. Change Friends
Some times we’ve fallen into a group of people who have the same bad habits that we do. For some people, it doesn’t matter what those around them do, their willpower is enough. For the rest of us, we really need to change a lot more in our lives - like the people we surround ourselves with. If they are not people we want to be like, why are we hanging out with them? There is this old adage that makes a lot of good sense: “It’s difficult to soar with the eagles when you’re scratching with the turkeys.”
6. Relax, forgive yourself, and keep going
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was my ability to get sober. It took me 4 years to put that stuff away. The one thing I learned though was to never give up. Soon after I started up again I would set another quit date. I started to think of it as practicing and you know how they say about practice, it makes for perfect. So, just relax, realize you are doing the best that you can do and keep trying. It will all work out!
7. Be Prepared
Like the Boy Scouts, this is always a good one to have in your back pocket. In this case, I’m saying it because in my experience having a bad habit isn’t really about the habit. It’s usually about some thing deeper: low self esteem, bad influences, a mental health issue, etc. I bring up this point because when we quit one bad habit we often replace it with another. Like losing weight only to start exercising too much or quitting gambling only to start having indiscriminate sex. Whatever it is, be prepared. Life is meant to be lived in balance. If you can’t achieve that on your own, get professional help. You’re worth it.
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4 Responses to “7 Tips to Quitting”
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I had to laugh when I read the first few lines of this post , it reminded me so much of me,although I haven’t been much of a drinker, mind you if I could have handled the hangovers I probably would have,my excuse for smoking pot was to blot out some of my past, it was my release ,but luckily a year and half ago I finally realised what I was doing and quit, and I have just recently also quit smoking ordinary ciggies and like you I am chanelling my energy to other things like blogging ,squash and now the weather is nice ..gardening, all useless info i’m telling you, i know, but I just wanted to share and say thanx for your comment tc x
Excellent tips. I had to move away from home to get away from my bad habits. I moved all the way to China. Changed my friends, changed my habits, changed my outlook on life and I’m still gripped by the urge whenever I go home and see my friends in the same patterns of abuse.
Thank you both for commenting.
As they say, quitting is not for wimps!
Best luck to all of us.
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