Many quit smoking methods recommend that smokers wishing to give up the smoking habit name a "quitting day". This very advice can be one of the biggest reasons that a smoker fails in their attempt to give up.
Normally the quitting day is somewhere in the distance, maybe the next week or next month or after a key event in a smoker's upcoming diary. With the day noted the smoker can now go back to smoking. The smoker no longer contemplates quitting as it is something that will happen at a later date.
All too soon the quitting day comes around no matter how far into the future it has been placed. As the day approaches the smoker becomes more and more aware of it and the fear of giving up starts to take hold. The fear of quitting can quite often overcome the desire to give up smoking.
So, what happens when the quitting day arrives and the smoker continues to smoke? Unfortunately the smoker experiences a feeling of failure. The method for giving up smoking has failed and the smoker's faith in the method dwindles.
Once a smoker does this on multiple occasions the whole "quitting day" procedure becomes a formula for failure. Worse still, the smoker becomes accustomed to failure and even expects to fail.
It is often said that "A smoker can only give up smoking if they genuinely want to give up. A better statement is "A smoker can only give up when they are ready to give up.'
How then can a smoker know that they will be ready at some distant point in time? Too much emphasis can be made on the "quitting day" itself rather than deal with the bigger issues of why smokers smoke in the first place. These issues are far more important than marking off some "quitting day" on a calendar.
