Know your reasons why

In any goal achieving situation especially weight reduction and smoking cessation it is extremely important to know your reason why. When you have a strong why the how will appear to you and you will be able to plan out a route to your goal and you will be able to get there and remain there.

When people come to me for smoking cessation I first ask them to make a long list of the reasons they must stop smoking before the first appointment. I warn them that if the list is not long enough I will not work with them. On that first session I make sure that they have enough good personal reasons to stop smoking. Thus “I want to stop smoking to keep my wife happy,” is not a good enough reason. It is not personal enough. The same motivation may be changed slightly into: “I love my wife and when I stop smoking and see her happy I’ll be happy,” is a better reason. The change is subtle but is there. It is a question of understanding that ultimately whatever we do we do for some interior motive.

“I want to stop smoking so I become healthier so I can run a marathon,” is an even better reason. Here we go from the abstract to the concrete. We have a goal which can be visualized. That is why most short term weight loss programs (diets) work. We have a goal of fitting into that gorgeous long dress for cousin Joe’s wedding or better still for our high school reunion.

However, we need total behavior modification and long term permanent goals in order to stop smoking for the rest of our lives or reduce our weight to our ideal and keep it there.

So if you have any goal in mind write a list of all the reasons you wish to achieve your goal. Spend time with this list. Each day look at it and ask yourself what other reason there may be that you want to achieve that goal and if another reason why comes up write it down.

Write your list on an index card and keep it with you. Read this list at least three times a day.

More about this later….

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