Almost all smokers and ex-smokers have equally trained thought of quitting smoking. It's scary, hard and close to impossible. Every smoker has tried to stop smoking, most smokers many times. Why stopping is so difficult? During my 15 years smoking career I have quit several times. Then I figured out the only right way to stop smoking and finally titled myself a non-smoker.

It's easy to stop smoking, what you need to do is stop smoking! How that simple thing seems so difficult to be achieved? As a smoker I always slept well until late morning and many days I forgot smoking when I worked with my both hands, many times I spent almost a full day without a cigarette. No doubt about the toxicity of nicotine, it’s also addictive, that addiction is not that bad after all, I hardly could notice the craving of nicotine when ever I kept myself focused on something I liked. No person have died in lack of nicotine, several has died on nicotine.

Tips:

• Find yourself a group of ex-smokers, who are willing to share their stories
• Look at the light side of stopping smoking, you aren't giving up anything, instead you are gaining back what you once had
• Don't replace cigarette to substitutes, nicotine or food
• Enjoy your life, there is ups and downs! Go and be active practising your first smokeless days
• Say "no" to cigarette without exception, chain starts from one

I didn’t consider myself a heavy smoker, my wife did. I smoked average 20-30 cigarettes a day. My pals doubled that easily. When I started smoking as a tough teenager, I knew I could stop smoking anytime. I remember that thought like yesterday, the first cigarettes tasted so horribly annoying, I knew for myself that I would never ever like the taste. Therefore I could easily smoke along with my friends and just stop when the time comes. I lived with this knowledge for 3 years, until I wanted to quit smoking for the very first time. Suddenly I was craving for so many things, struggled 3 weeks, sometimes smoked hiding from my girlfriend. I offered myself many excuses and created wall of advantages, why it’s still better for me to continue smoking. When I now look back and read the writings on my wall, I see them as self created fiction. I was not ready to look the truth of burning cigarette in the eye. Instead I was stumping cigarettes in my own eye, not trying to look ahead.

12 years time I wished to stop, I told myself I smoked because I liked cigarettes, truth was very different, but I couldn’t face it. It was always wrong time, there is a storybook of reasons why.

One day I met a person who actually had stopped smoking rather easily and told me how it happened. I was more than ready to hear all about it. He had joined a group, who encourage people to stop smoking and share their success stories. You can hear so many rumours and fallacies of smoking and smokers, that there is no-way out from it alone. But after hearing a number of stories from people who did success, you gain hope. That person has stopped without having special character and without nicotine substitutes, you are able to do it too.

One day I had heard enough. I took my last cigarette, breathed it the very last time, tried to figure out what exactly it’s doing inside my lungs, what is the taste like, what is it I really felt at the moment. I wrote the feelings down on paper for myself, just to remember what I was missing, if ever I had idea to try one cigarette again.

Then I stopped, I kept myself active the first days. Every time I got a push of craving, I told myself to enjoy about it, those are the final goodbyes nicotine is giving for me and it means I am in a process to become a non-smoker. Stay positive and let those cravings come, welcome them, show you are ready to take them anytime, they won’t come forever. For me I was over and done in less than 2 weeks, first 3 days keeping myself very focused. It’s important you don’t take any substitute for cigarette, not nicotine product or food product. Otherwise you will find yourself from another endless looking problem.

Find yourself supporting team of non-smoking ex-smokers. They will always keep you in track reminding you that there is a bright life ahead of you after your very final cigarette. You can find great support, just prepare yourself to be ready for a change in your life.