Stop Smoking in One Easy Step

A journey of a thousand miles begins.

I quit smoking over ten years ago using what I call the "Forrest Gump Method." I left the house one morning without my smokes, by accident. Rather than buy a pack on my way to work, I thought I'd see if I could make it the whole day without a cigarette. I did. When I got home, I thought, I've gone this far, let's see if I can go all night without a cigarette. The next morning, I thought, I've gone one day without a cigarette, I wonder if I can go another day. And then another and another. It's been over ten years now.

Here's the secret. Any stop smoking method will work. But if you want to really stop, you have to follow one fundamental rule - no matter what, you can never allow yourself an excuse to smoke one single cigarette (or use any tobacco product) from the moment you quit until the moment you quit this earth.

I don't care if you are out walking the dog and you run into the president and you crap your pants in front of him and his daughters and they catch you in the act on CNN and play it over and over all day and while you are running away your dog runs out into traffic and when you jerk him back you rip his little head off and they arrest you for animal cruelty and while you are in jail awaiting trial you have to share a cell with a 300 pound gay biker named Rainbow Eagle who used to have a good life until some jerk ripped his dog's head off and life's been a downward spiral of meth and sex addiction ever since - you can't tell yourself that you deserve a cigarette just this one time, because there is no such thing as "just this one time."