How To Quit Smoking and Save Your Life

By Brian Keelan

“There is nothing more important to your success at quitting smoking than the act of preparing yourself to do it. Nothing!” That’s what finally got Brian Keelan out of his 40 year addiction to nicotine, over 90,000 cigarettes and $37,000 after-tax dollars ago.
This is a book every smoker should read before they even try to quit smoking. It will take you very thoroughly through five basic steps you need to go through to get yourself to the point where you are totally ready, motivated and equipped to succeed at quitting smoking forever and overturning the worst decision you ever made in your life – your decision to start smoking.
It’s a book every parent should read and then give their kids to read before they have to deal with the issue of smoking because it will give them the right information to make the right decision.
“I can thank you and your dog eared book now because I have been smoke free for 2 years. “ Stephanie Ferrera, former smoker.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Keelan
• Release date: Oct 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458138620

Brian Keelan

Father of three, grandfather of two, retired from 30 years owning an audio/video business to write a book about how to to quit smoking after finally kicking my 40 year addiction to nicotine. I am also working on a book called, "Bucket Rides" - a collection of short stories about rides I have taken on boats I realized I would never be able to afford to own. I am also working on a new jokebook and a novel.

Book preview

How To Quit Smoking

and

Save Your Life

By Brian Keelan

****

Copyright

Published by Brian Keelan at Smashwords

Copyright © 2014 by Brian Keelan. All rights reserved

ISBN 978-0-9683764-2-9

Smashwords Edition, License notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

* * * * *

Table of Contents

Introduction – The trouble with quitting smoking

Chapter 1: Two important things every quitter needs to know

Chapter 2: Step One: Identify your real problem

Chapter 3: How I finally quit

Chapter 4: Step Two: Measure your problem

Chapter 5: Step Three: Respect your problem

Chapter 6: Step Four: Get motivated!

Chapter 7: Step Five: Choose your weapons and draw your plans!

Chapter 8: A suggested quit-smoking timetable

Chapter 9: Your Ready-to-Quit day

Chapter 10: Closing thoughts

About the author

My Quit Smoking Math APP

The Joke Book

The Joke Book App

* * * * *

Introduction

"I didn’t really smoke for 40 years… I spent 40 years trying to quit smoking." Brian Keelan

The trouble with quitting smoking

At this point in your life, I am sure you realize that sooner or later, one way or another, you are going to have to face your inability to quit smoking and deal with it. You are either going to continue to smoke and face the consequences of doing so, or you are going to learn how eliminate the tobacco industry and its products from your life… forever.

How I did that – and how you can do it too – is what this book is all about.

The quit smoking product and program people, organizations and companies or as they like to call themselves, the smoking-cessation industry, offers smokers a bewildering array of solutions to their problem; most of them promising an easy way out of this terrible situation. But if that were really true, very few sane people would be smoking today and those who were smoking would be able to quit any time they wanted to. Sadly, the smoking cessation industry has a very poor success rate.

I wrote this book because during the 40 years that I was smoking and trying so desperately to quit, I never came across an approach to quitting smoking like the one I used when I finally did succeed at quitting smoking – over 90,000 cigarettes and well over $40,000 after-tax dollars ago. This book will tell you what I did, what I learned and how you can apply that knowledge to help you become what every smoker wants to become – an ex-smoker.

My approach to quitting smoking is based on the idea that my success at quitting smoking forever did not rely on one secret or one miracle product or program. It was a blend of ideas and tactics that I have learned in other areas of my life that came together for me during a six-week period when I went from a being a chain-smoking, stressed out smoker who was terribly afraid of – and depressed by – the thought of going the rest of my life without a cigarette to a confident ex-smoker with absolutely no desire whatsoever to smoke a cigarette… no urges, no cravings at all. My addiction to nicotine had been eliminated. Not suppressed or denied which is what most smokers try to do. My addiction to nicotine was eliminated... as in gone forever.

The first thing we’re going to cover is why you have kept failing in your efforts to quit smoking in the past. At least then you’ll know what not to do in the future.

Sir Francis Bacon is credited with coining the phrase, Knowledge is power, meaning that the more you know about a subject, the more you will be able to control events. Now, here’s how that relates to you the smoker: What you don’t know about tobacco, the tobacco business, smoking and how to quit smoking, is what has hurt your chances of succeeding at quitting smoking the most.

It is vital that you begin your quit-smoking process by making absolutely sure that you know exactly what you are up against and need to accomplish. Then once you have done that, get to know everything about how to do that so that you can deal with the issues as they arise – secure in the knowledge that you expected them, you knew all about them, you were highly motivated and you had a well thought out, workable plan for dealing with them.

Here’s a good example to help you understand what I’m talking about. I call it…

A lesson from General Patton

There is a great scene in the movie Patton where U.S. General George Patton, while commanding the US army in Europe during World War II, was preparing to face the Desert Fox – Nazi Field Marshal, Erwin Rommel and his dreaded Africa Panzer Tank Korps. The night before the battle, in an effort to understand what his enemy was really all about, Patton read a book on military tactics that Rommel had written before the war called: Infantry Attacks. The next day, Patton and his army put the boots to Rommel; thoroughly defeating him. As Rommel’s shattered army retreated in disarray, Patton stood up and waving the book he had just read the night before at Rommel’s retreating army, he yelled, Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!

As a smoker who wants to quit, you need to see that you are in a war here, a war that has been waged against you since long before you were even born. And in order for you to win this war, you need to thoroughly understand your enemy; just as General Patton did. Without proper preparation for your quit smoking effort, you might just as well save your money and get your affairs in order. Complete and total victory is the only acceptable outcome here… otherwise why waste your time and your money?

In his 2,500 year old book, The Art of War, Chinese military general and tactician, Sun Tzu says that, All warfare is based on deception. As you learn about the tobacco business, you will see that deception has been the key tactic in the war that the tobacco industry has waged against you. It would therefore be a very wise move for you to confront your smoking problem with a complete understanding of just how the tobacco industry and it’s enablers in government and media, operate so profitably by exploiting – while at the same time, concealing – the addictive and lethal properties of tobacco with only one goal in mind: to enslave you and your children for life to their highly profitable products. You need to know how and why this is done so that you can use that information to build your resolve to succeed at eliminating the tobacco industry and their deadly products from your life forever.

And just how do you do that?

As I’m sure General Patton would say… Read their book!

My goal with this book is to provide you with the knowledge you can use to help you gain complete control over the outcome of your quit smoking effort and overturn the result of what I am sure you will agree, is the worst decision you ever made in your life – your decision to start smoking. This is a book you will wish you had read before you ever smoked your first cigarette. That’s because, if you had known back then what you will know after you read this book, you would be living a very different life than the one you are living now.

My quit smoking philosophy

Here’s a story I use to illustrate the philosophical approach that smokers need to adopt in order to succeed at quitting smoking forever:

A friend of mine – a former professional golfer who now helps young golfers develop their game to a level where they can turn pro – told me about a conversation he’d had with a young man on a golf scholarship at a U.S. university who told him that he wanted to turn pro when he finished college.

My friend told him, "No you don’t. What you really want to do is, to make sure you are ready to turn pro when you finish college."

When I heard him say that, the lights went on because I realized that is exactly how you should approach quitting smoking. Let’s just say that you decide to set New Year’s Day as your quit smoking date. Most people who do that just decide they’ll quit smoking on that day and then go right back to smoking and wait for the fateful day – but inside you really dread that day – because you know it’s going to be a tough one and you are afraid you won’t get through it without smoking. I can very personally relate to that since all of my quit smoking attempts were exactly like that – except for the last one.

I knew that my quit date was coming and I dreaded it because I knew I was going to go through hell and deep down I was afraid I wouldn’t make it. There would be a lot of stress brought on by the nicotine withdrawal cravings – plus, I’d spend even more money on a product or program to help me quit and then, after all that time, money and stress, I would still cave in and wind up smoking.

The only real preparation I ever did was to try and figure out which product or program I was going to use: gum, the patch, hypnosis, the e-cigarette, acupuncture, prescription drugs like Chantix or Wellbutrin, maybe laser therapy or one of those smoking cessation clinics. But, other than trying to figure out which of those products or programs can best help you deal with the cravings, smokers don’t really do too much to get themselves ready to succeed at quitting smoking forever.

Why?

Because smokers don’t really know what else to do or… how to do it. We just select the product or program and then go right on smoking in fearful anticipation of the looming quit date – all the while hoping like crazy that this time, the product or program we selected for this particular attempt would provide the magic bullet that every smoker is looking for.

Now don’t get me wrong here, these products or programs can be helpful… very helpful – if you use one that is right for you and you have properly prepared yourself to make it work for you. But… they cannot do the job for you. You have to do that. And that’s what this book will do for you… show you how to get ready for your big day… the day you smoke your last cigarette… ever.

So then… your quit-smoking philosophy should go something like this… Instead of saying, I am going to quit smoking on New Year’s Day, you say, On New Year’s Day, I am going to begin to get myself 100% ready to succeed at quitting smoking forever.

That will set you on a different course… one that will lead you to the next question, What is it that I need to do in order to get myself ready to succeed at quitting smoking forever?

And now you are on your way… because that’s the question you really need to ask yourself if you want to put the odds against your success at quitting smoking forever… in your favor. Statistics show that the odds of your success at quitting smoking are heavily stacked against you and even though it is sometimes fun to gamble with your money, you really do not want to be gambling when you are putting your heart, your lungs and your very life on the line.

The work you do before you smoke your last cigarette will be the most important part of your quit smoking effort. I can tell you with great confidence that quitting smoking will be a lot easier for you to do if you take the time to learn how to get yourself ready to do it before you actually try to do it. Believe me, it’s a lot easier than learning how to play golf but just like golf, you won’t get good at quitting smoking in a day… you will get good at it, day by day and being good at something, makes it easier to do… a lot easier.

Learning how to quit smoking is not magic… it’s a process – and you will have your best chance for success, if you start that process right at the very beginning and proceed – step by step – day by day – all the way to the end; leaving no stone unturned. This book will take about a week of your time to read and absorb or about seven hours to listen to. From there you will continue your quit smoking process and move methodically toward your chosen, ready to quit day. So… good luck, work hard – and by that I mean, make your time count; learn the lessons and do the work… you will not only save your life, and a lot of money, you will have accomplished something that will open your eyes and change your life in a very positive way.

Now… let’s get started!

* * * * *

Chapter 1

Two very important things every quitter should know

Alexander Graham Bell said, Before anything else preparation is the key to success.

Benjamin Franklin said, By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

With those two quotes in mind, let me begin this process by saying that the number one most important thing a smoker who wants to quit needs to know is that:

#1: There is nothing more essential to your success at quitting smoking forever, than the act of preparing yourself to do it.

Nothing!

Without proper preparation, you have lost your battle to quit smoking before you have even begun to fight it. Quit smoking campaigns are lost at the beginning… you just don’t find out until the end. That is because you aren’t going to realize and accept the fact that you have failed in your effort to quit smoking until you finally give in and smoke a cigarette and that happens for one reason and one reason only… you can no longer deal with or resist the urge to smoke a cigarette.

Quitting smoking was something that really stressed me out because I was so afraid of what would happen to me health-wise if I didn’t succeed at quitting. I also knew from previous experience that I was going to go through a lot of stress and anxiety dealing with the nicotine withdrawal cravings once I had smoked what I hoped would be my last cigarette… and the longer I smoked, the more I worried about it: but… the more I worried about it, the more I smoked. So simply worrying about it is only going to take you down a road you do not want to follow. You need to actually do something about it!

So your big question is, What is the right thing for me to do here?

And that’s a good question because at this point in your smoking-life, it’s all about…

Doin’ the right thing!

And the right thing for you to do here is to commit yourself to hang in there with me all the way to the end of this book. You’re 2% of the way there right now so our journey is just beginning. But… we are headed to a place you definitely want to go and I guarantee that if you go all the way to the end with me here, you will see smoking and quitting smoking in a whole new light. And then?

Well then, you will be able to confidently do the right thing: quit smoking forever.

Why?

Because you will not only know how to do it… you’ll be ready to do it.

Would you like to know why I failed to quit smoking so many times?

It’s very simple… every time I tried to quit smoking and failed, I blamed the tools – or resources that I was using and not the fact that I had absolutely no skill in using those tools. That’s because I hadn’t taken the time to learn how to use them and in fact, I hadn’t even bothered to try and really learn how or even if they would (or even could) help me. Basically, I wasn’t taking what I was doing seriously enough… so naturally… I failed. I knew I should quit and all these new products and programs were being advertised that made me feel that quitting smoking would be easier to do if I just gave these people my money and let them do the work for me.

It’s like going out to play your first game of golf. Even if you had the best and most expensive set of golf clubs there is – if you’ve never played before – if you’ve never gone out and learned how to hit a golf ball and then practiced, practiced, practiced – I can pretty much guarantee that you are not going to do very well. But, you would be making a huge mistake if you blamed your poor performance on your clubs. It’s like my old pal Woodrowe loves to tell me, You can’t buy a good golf swing. Spend a little less money on your clubs and use that money for lessons, time on the driving range and the putting green. You need to learn how to play and then do some work on your game before you tee off in the big money tournament.

Comparing learning how to play golf to learning how to quit smoking is a great analogy because smokers who have tried to quit and failed, often say that the product or program they used – their clubs if you will – simply didn't do the job. They rarely admit – or are even aware of the fact – that they just didn't know how to use them and that’s because they had not done much work – if any – at getting themselves properly prepared to use them. In other words, they didn’t take the game seriously and so… they failed.

Even so, failing to take the game of golf seriously won’t kill you. But… it’s a whole different deal when it comes to quitting smoking.

When I look back on my failed attempts at quitting smoking, I can see now that there was no way I could have succeeded at quitting smoking because I wasn’t properly prepared and ready to succeed at it. I wasn’t taking what I was doing seriously enough and the dumb part was that it never even occurred to me. I had no idea what I was doing and really didn’t even understand what my real problem actually was… I just knew that if I didn’t succeed at quitting smoking forever, something horrible was going to happen to me and even though I was very afraid of that, I didn’t really realize just how serious a problem lay in front of me. The people who sold me the products and programs I used to help me quit, obviously didn’t know that either – or if they did… they weren’t talking about it.

Abraham Lincoln said, "If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my axe."

That’s good advice. Once I had spent some time getting myself ready to quit smoking, it was a lot easier to do.

Why? I had a sharp axe… a very sharp axe… and… I knew how to use it. My smoking addiction – like Abe Lincoln’s tree – never had a chance.

Once you understand how important it is to prepare yourself to succeed at quitting smoking forever, the number two most important thing you need to know about quitting smoking is that:

#2: Quitting smoking is a learnable skill!

Just about everything you have succeeded at doing in this life is something you learned how to do. In that light, seeing the act of quitting smoking as a learnable skill makes sense doesn’t it? You had to learn how to do it and now you need to learn how to stop doing it. Sadly, I never considered quitting smoking to be a learnable skill in all the years I was smoking and trying to quit. But… after I had finally succeeded at quitting, I realized that the main reason I had succeeded was that I had in fact, learned how to do it. In all the years I was struggling with trying to quit smoking, I never once saw or heard anybody approach it that way.

The other thing I learned is that, taking the time to learn how to quit smoking before you actually try to do it, will make quitting smoking much easier to do.

Since I quit smoking, I have purchased an electric keyboard and hooked it up to my sound system. If you get somebody who knows how to play a piano to play it, it sounds beautiful. Sadly – for me at least – I have never been able to make it sound that way. That’s because I don’t know how; I haven’t learned and I haven’t practiced… enough. But just like I did with quitting smoking, I am going through the process of learning and I am getting better at it – at least I think I am. I see it like the guy going through the Holland Tunnel into New York City who asked the toll collector how to get to Carnegie Hall.

The answer was… Practice.

Another sad fact is that I can’t pay anybody to learn how to play the piano for me. I have to do it… and whether or not I succeed is entirely up to me. The process of learning how to quit smoking works exactly the same way – the harder you work at it, the better you’re going to get. And since smoking is such a serious issue in your life, you should know by now that to treat quitting smoking as anything less than serious is a total waste of your time, your money and very probably, a good portion of your life. I can practically guarantee that you would look back on