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Goal Setting Musts For All High Goal Achievement

By admin on Saturday, August 14th, 2010 | No Comments

Five Goal Setting Musts For High Goal Achievement by Al Smith

Goal Achievement in a nutshell? Just get serious.

Are you serious about getting what you want, or serious about being, doing or having what you want?

This is not brain surgery and it is not complicated. We tend to over complicate simple things. Far too many people are not willing to investigate all their options. They are not serious about designing their life. They give in to excuses.

At the time it probably seemed easier not to go their own way, but this is life’s fatal trap which they most often will not recognize until many years later. They then finally realize that they could have had whatever they wanted if they just would have started momentum in the direction of their real dream.

They would rather sit back and take a reactive role, let others make the decisions, and then just go along for the ride and hope that everything would work out. They don’t seem to want to take ownership of their life.

Don’t let this be you. Make your decision up front, and then take the time and actions necessary to plan out your journey. In other words, go make your decision right.

I remember when I was younger and I needed a new car. I would just go into the dealership, or look in the paper for what I thought I could afford, or for what they had available on the lot. I didn’t realize it at the time but I had literally made an unconscious decision to settle for what I thought I could get at the time.

I would look over the limited selection and pick out what I thought I wanted, or whatever they were pushing me toward. What a crock! I pretty much let them make the decision for me and then I justified the decision in my own mind that it was really what I wanted.

And my dream car would just get further away from my reality because I didn’t have the courage to pursue it. My life was pretty much an expanded view of the same type of behaviors.

Now whenever I set a plan into motion I check to make sure I feel certain I am doing the right thing for me. Here are what I think are the most important rules for achieving anything you want. There are others but I feel these are the most critical areas.

Here are the 5 Goal Setting Musts For All Goal Achievement:

1. You must believe that what you are doing is the most important thing you can do. You must commit to this path as being the best path for you. No wavering, no conflicting emotions allowed.

2. You must believe that you have now, or you can develop the special qualities that are necessary for accomplishment in this area. Organize the resources necessary for making the journey, and educate yourself as you go.

3. You must desire it with all your heart and recognize that the full and complete success in this undertaking is the only acceptable outcome. It is your want, you deserve it and you refuse to lose.

4. You must see yourself taking the actions necessary and feel the enjoyment accomplishing it will bring. Get comfortable with the realization that you will soon have what you want. You may decide to adjust the timing and strategy, but the goal is a sure thing.

5. You must make a habit of disciplining yourself for it’s completion. Make your subconscious (mind) and your homeostasis (body) serve your master plan. Replace procrastination with the eagerness to move forward. You just can’t wait to make it happen.

Your success rate is hugely dependent on how successful you are at applying this checklist of rules to your goal path. If you are not serious about your life’s journey, then what will you be serious about? There is no time like the present!

Like I said at the start, Get Serious. It’s your life. Live it!

Al Smith

Al Smith writes for and publishes The Realgoalgetter Ezine and The Realgoalgetter Blog. His articles deal mostly with goal setting, self improvement, and motivation. Get some free reports, ecourses, and ebooks and subscribe to The Realgoalgetter Ezine at FREE Ezines, Reports And Ebooks.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Al_Smith

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Forbes Magazine Review – A Great Financial Magazine

By admin on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 | No Comments

Forbes Magazine By Graeme I Olsen

Among the most long-running and well respected publications in America to date is Forbes. B.C. Forbes, a leading writer for Hearst Newspapers in Scotland founded Forbes Magazine in 1917.

Born in Aberdeenshire Scotland, Forbes had relocated to Johannesburg South Africa and then settled in New York. He was responsible for multiple columns and performed editorial functions for Hearst for many years prior to establishing Forbes as the premier magazine for business people.

Published every two weeks, Forbes offers you more than fifty succinctly written items in each issue. The articles and items examine every aspect of business from the CEO’s and the people who work for them, up to the companies themselves. Forbes is very pro-business as well as being very conservative from a political viewpoint.

Among the many business topics you will see covered in Forbes will be items that offer you insight into finances, marketing, and the science and technology of the world. You May also find insight on the industry that each company has going, new methods of communications, new places to invest, and even the tax laws that you will have to deal with in various countries around the world.

Forbes Magazine reaches out and touches more than five million readers around the globe for every issue that is published. 2007 saw the ninetieth anniversary of Forbes Magazine.

Some of the highlights of Forbes Magazine are the columns that you will see. Steve Forbes who was at one point a Presidential hopeful operated a column called Fact and Comment that has hit a high note with the readers of Forbes. It runs in every issue of Forbes Magazine and garners a great deal of commentary by readers.

Some of the most interesting things that Forbes offers on a monthly or an annual basis are their top-list type articles.

Forbes brings you lists of the most wealthy people on earth, as well as the largest companies on earth.

Most corporations and business people subscribe to Forbes magazine and count it as important as the Wall Street Journal to the way that they do business. They take ideas, commentary, and advice from Forbes.

Investors review some of the information there to decide how best to spend their investment dollars as well as what to avoid.

Forbes, in return, reports on every important business transaction that exists on earth. There is no geat merger, no outstanding advertising campaign, no legal issue, or company hassle that you can’t find out about in Forbes Magazine.

The commentary and reporting is excellent journalism that offers you insight into those who are touched by scandal or legal problems, as well as those who are exemplary in the way that they do business.

Several times some controversy has touched Forbes, most notably when they commented on the wealth of Castro, who took exception to it and told them to prove that he had more than a dollar in wealth in offshore accounts.

Today a great deal of each issue of Forbes Magazine is also available to be read online.

Graeme Olsen writes for Magazine Central and specializes in magazine subscriptions for popular titles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Graeme_I_Olsen

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Organize Your Pantry And Seal Foods With Re-Usable Jars

By admin on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 | No Comments

The Mighty Reusable Peanut Butter Jar By Linda Manley

Storage is an issue for almost everyone. Some people earn a living by helping others learn how to store everything they own. This article concentrates on the small things, especially food storage in the kitchen. How to store small bits of leftovers can be a puzzle.

Many people toss leftover food because they don’t know how to store it or they just don’t want to mess with it. How wasteful! Maybe they don’t own storage containers. Or maybe they have lots of containers, but they are all stuffed in the back of a cupboard. Lid? Who knows where the lid is? Did that ever have a lid?

Plastic storage containers are available in endless sizes, shapes, and styles. Most seem to be flat; that is, wide and shallow. Some are a bit taller, either round or square, and have proportions sort of like a cube.

The down side of such containers is the amount of space they take up in your fridge or cupboard. Even if they are clear, the plastic is cloudy and not much surface area is exposed. It’s difficult to tell what is inside, especially if you stack the containers to save space.

Without picking it up or finding what you wrote on the lid (yes, you can write on the lid), the contents remain a mystery.

Enter: the empty peanut butter jar! I love empty peanut butter jars for storage! Look at their advantages:

  • They are unbreakable.
  • They are completely clear.
  • Their footprint in the fridge is small.
  • They’re lightweight.
  • You can stack them.
  • You store them with the lid on, so it’s never lost.
  • They’re recyclable.
  • And they’re free!

Plus, they have a wide opening, and you can pour liquids from them without spilling. They are a wonderful container for storing almost any food. (OK, not a leftover roast turkey.)

Nuts for baking and cooking (pecans, almonds, walnuts, etc.) come in plastic or cellophane bags, which are not very sturdy for long-term storage. I transfer the nuts to a peanut butter jar and store them in the freezer to stay fresh longer.

A small amount of uncooked pasta, dried beans, or lentils stored in a peanut better jar is easier to manage. It won’t accidentally come open and spill the contents into the far corners of your cupboard.

You can snip cooking directions from the label and tuck them into the jar. An extra benefit is that the jar is insect-proof, if that is a problem in your area.

We eat fruit on our cereal every morning. Whether I buy fresh or frozen fruit, I store it in a peanut butter jar in the fridge. If fresh, berries remain plump without getting smashed.

If frozen, the jar holds enough thawed fruit for just a few days, so it’s always fresh. When I dice the fruit in advance, such as frozen peaches or strawberries, the no-spill, no-mess guarantee of a jar is welcome in the morning fog.

I use peanut butter jars to store small amounts of orange juice, gravy, and creamy salads. If we open a large can of pineapple juice for summer cocktails, peanut butter jars offer the perfect way to store the leftover juice in the freezer. I’m sure you can think of a dozen other uses for peanut butter jars!

So fix lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for your grandkids, and remember that it’s a protein-rich lunch for yourself. Then save and reuse the mighty peanut butter jar!

Copyright 2010 by Linda Manley

Linda Manley, a retired university research director, writes website articles on topics that interest her, such as retiring in warm places, staying fit and healthy, and saving money while doing both. You can find more of her articles at http://www.CheapPlacestoRetire.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Manley

Exercise Workouts For The Busy Professional

By admin on Sunday, May 30th, 2010 | No Comments

Unique Lean-Body Workouts for the Time-Crunched Individual: Quick Exercises to do at Home or the Office by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer – Truth About Abs

Warning: this style of workout is WAY different than anything you’ve ever tried before and may result in a dramatically leaner, stronger body so that your friends no longer recognize you in a matter of weeks!

Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for busy people that always use the excuse that they don’t have time to go to the gym, or even for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.

Please keep an open-mind and don’t worry so much about what other people think, because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you’ll get the last laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that’s the case for you, then that’s your loss.

Here’s how it works (these workouts can be done at home or even in your office):

Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for 45 miutes to an hour at a shot… with this program, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.

The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your cube-mates watch you. Actually, I’ve found that some people that have tried this have actually gotten their co-workers to join them!

If you have a private office, then you don’t have to worry about anybody watching you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there’s no reason you can’t fit these in throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.

If you’re on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.

Some of the bodyweight exercises that are the best to focus on are:

  • bodyweight squats (and variations)
  • pushups (and variations)
  • forward, reverse, or walking lunges
  • up & down a staircase if one is available
  • floor planks (holding the plank position from forearms and feet)
  • floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
  • one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts

This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to keep it real simple and don’t want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.

The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body’s muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it’s usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.

Here’s an example workout routine at home or the office (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):

Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am – 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am – plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total of 3 minutes)
11 am – 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm – plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm – 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm – plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm – max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)

Tues/Thurs
9 am – 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am – one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X for 2 sets
11 am – 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm – one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm – 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm – one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm – max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)

In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.).

The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you’ve accomplished with these “mini” workouts completed throughout each day… You’ve increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.

Even though each “mini” workout was a very short duration, you’ve accumulated lots of repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn’t even have to break a sweat during any of the “mini” workouts. And there’s hardly any excuse for not being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.

Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don’t have to devote any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little throughout the day. You’ve now got some extra free time on your hands!

Try this type of time-efficient workout routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I think you’ll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these “mini” workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.

Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn’t mean that you should only stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I’d recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means, don’t worry so much about what other people think…have the courage to try something a little different. In the end, you’ll be the one laughing back at all of the “blubber-bellies” at your office that are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!

If you liked these training ideas, my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs contains hundreds of more innovative training ideas to lose stubborn body fat and carve out a rock hard set of abs and a flat stomach.

Feel free to email this link on to any friends or coworkers that you think would like to try these types of unique quick daily workouts.  Heck, try to get your co-workers to do these with you if you can!

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Top Ten Business Growth Challenges

By admin on Sunday, May 30th, 2010 | No Comments

Top 10 Stumbling Blocks that Limit Business Growth

Never in history have more entrepreneurs launched more new businesses! In America, thousands of business open their doors every single day! Unfortunately, most of them (over 90% of them) also close their doors within two years.

Businesses are started with high hopes and glorious dreams. It is easy to start a business. It is much more difficult to build it, to make it succeed, to avoid the traps and pitfalls and frustrations, and enjoy the fruits of success over the years. 

In working with hundreds (probably two to three THOUSAND) entrepreneurs over 25 years, here are the mistakes I see most often. Avoid them!

Fear and Confusion. There is either a sense of being over-whelmed by the size of the tasks, or a refusal to master the work of being an entrepreneur and business owner. There are specific skills to owning and running a successful business. Learn them! You can master this! You can focus and succeed! (This is often the time to hire a coach)

Lack of Capital. Capital comes in three forms: Time, money, and energy. Some people have one or two, but not all three, and they fail because they simply can not sustain the growth phase of their business.  EVERY business is a commitment of everything you have. You may start “small”, but that does not mean casual or part-time!

Lack of Courage or Commitment. Building a business is always risky. Some people perceive the risk as frightening, others see it as an exciting challenge, but there is always risk. Manage it. Limit your potential losses. Understand the risks and enjoy the process. You will make mistakes. Learn from them and go on.

Refusal to select and target an audience. No one can sell their services to “everyone” – a message that goes to everyone is unlikely to create a sense of urgency in anyone in particular. Attorneys focus on one type of law. Physicians specialize. So should you.

Choosing the wrong audience. A market that can not or will not pay or an audience that is too small or dispersed is a recipe for disaster. The “poor” desperately need medical, dental, legal and other services, but who is going to pay you? The same problem exists when trying to reach an audience that is dispersed over a large geographic area and not easily identified.

Fuzzy or unfocused message. What exact benefits do you provide? To whom? Under what circumstances and at what cost? How can people contact you? Be precise, be clear, be specific.

Lack of planning – too many random efforts. Many entrepreneurs try a little radio, a direct mailing, join a service organization, offer free samples, and then report that they have “tried everything and nothing worked”. Pick one, and stay the course! You become identified with your marketing techniques. Choose a logo, a color-scheme, and a marketing technique and stay with it!

Too much advertising, too little relationship building. Advertising works best for tangible products because customers can see the results. Intangible services are very difficult to advertise and are almost always purchased based on the quality of the relationship. The more people know you, and the more they know about you and your caring, your professionalism and your quality, the more business you will do. Build networks of relationships!

Laziness and/or Greed. Your business ONLY exists to serve the customer! You must make a profit in order to continue serving the customer, but service is the key to success. Everything must be focused on that. The statement, “I want to be my own boss”, or “I want a business that supports me” may be true (and be totally honest and reasonable), but they are a dangerous focus for your business. Customers first!

Having a product or service that fails to produce adequate benefits, or fails to serve as promised. Some professionals are incompetent. Some don’t use current technology, or are sloppy in their delivery. Particularly with services, even ONE mistake will undermine client confidence, loyalty, and trust. Do your best – every time!

Phil, Mary, and the Staff at
Resources for Success!™

© Copyright by Philip E. Humbert. All Rights Reserved. Written by Dr. Philip E. Humbert, writer, speaker and success coach. Dr. Humbert has over 300 free articles, tools and resources for your success, including a great newsletter! It’s all on his website at:  http://www.philiphumbert.com

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Business Product Branding, Do You Have A USP?

By admin on Sunday, May 30th, 2010 | No Comments

YOU Are the Brand (c) Charlie Page

How many times have we heard “Xerox this”, when the copier involved may not be a Xerox brand at all?

What brand do you think of when you hear the words “Just do it”?

How about ordering a “coke” when what you really wanted was another soda?

Branding is a powerful tool in our business lives. While Nike and Xerox are prime examples of this idea, all businesses can benefit from branding.

But can YOU, the solo operator of a small business (and this does apply even if you work at home alone) use branding to your advantage?

More importantly, does branding really matter in your life?

I believe the answer is yes. Not so much because you might “hit it big” and become the next Wal-Mart but because good branding lowers sales barriers.

Read that again …

Good branding lowers sales resistance.

Let me give you two examples from the online marketing world.

One is Armand Morin and the other is Alex Mandossian. Both are very successful online, one for creating the Big Seminar and a range of software tools.

The other for teaching people how to market online using tools like teleseminars.

These men have paid careful attention to branding and it has paid off.

But the KEY is this … they paid careful attention to branding from the beginning!

How?

In how they wrote sales copy In how they provided customer service In how they worked with others In how they answered emails

Everything they did was with a mind toward creating a brand that said “this person delivers quality”.

Because of those efforts they are successful today.

AND, perhaps more importantly, when they introduce a new product or service it is met with happy anticipation, NOT skepticism.

Why? Because they created that image, that brand.

Now, how can YOU profit from this?

I believe there are seven ways you can begin today to build your brand.

It does not matter that you are not famous online.

It doesn’t even matter if you are yet to make your first dollar — thinking about branding now will pay big dividends in the future.

Here is a seven step formula that will give you a greatstart toward establishing yourself as the brand of choice.

* * * Know Where You Stand Now

What name pops into your customer’s mind when they need what you do? If it’s not your name, why not? Do you have a name or slogan that is easy to remember and clearly describes what you offer?

* * * Know Where You Want To Go

What do you want to be known for? Like it or not, customers will define us if we don’t define ourselves. Do you want to be the low-price leader? Do you want to be the value-added vendor?

We can’t (as much as we might like to) be everything to everyone. Choose a theme for your business and promote that theme at every opportunity. Soon, you will become associated with the ONE benefit that is your strong suit.

* * * Narrow Your Niche

Be such an expert in your field that you are the natural choice to call when what you do becomes what they need.

Marketing, either offline or online, creates the greatest impact when it frames YOU as the smart solution to a client’s problem.

* * * Give Away Some Work

If giving away your expertise means increasing your exposure, strongly consider it. You are BUILDING a reputation.

There is nothing wrong or manipulative in trading work for exposure, rather than cash. Sometimes a good word from an influential customer pays bigger dividends than the best advertising.

* * * Be Everywhere At Once

Oh, if only wishing made it so. The Internet can get you close.

If you market online, participate in several forums or blogs where decision makers and people of influence hang out.

Choose your answers very carefully, but answer every question you can, always bringing home the message that you are the best choice.

If you market offline, consider adjusting your budget to have a presence in each medium (TV, radio,  print, billboard) to reach the widest possible audience.

* * * Listen And Follow Up

If you give your product or service (or even advice) to someone, follow up to see how it worked out. Be brief and humble, but follow up to make sure you are on the mark.

When you do this you not only evaluate the quality of what you have given, you have an excellent opportunity to see how it effects real people in the real world.

* * * KNOW Your Stuff

Nothing can replace the good will you create when you do your very best work for every client or friend.

The key factor in branding is this. On the most basic level, the level where clients live and work, your company is represented by a person.

In your business that person may be YOU.

If you really know your stuff, and are willing to invest some time, you can become the natural choice for solving problems that arise in your field.

When those calls come, or those emails arrive you can begin to build an endless chain of referrals that will carry your business to new heights.

And that is a beautiful thing indeed!

Charlie Page

Charlie Page helps people succeed online with productsthat educate combined with personal support. To see all that Charlie offers, including a chance towork with Charlie personally, visit him now at  http://www.RealWorldTactics.com

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Quit Smoking, Prepare Yourself To Quit Smoking

By admin on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | 1 Comment

Quit Smoking by Preparing Yourself

It is a well known fact that smoking is highly addictive, and many smokers have a very difficult time quitting. Besides the physical component of the addiction, there is also a psychological one: smoking is socially acceptable in many situations, and, of course, entirely legal.

For these reasons it can be doubly difficult to quit smoking, especially if you have friends who smoke, or you regularly go to places that you associate with smoking. One of the first things you should so when attempting to quit smoking to adequately prepare yourself.

Quitting doesn’t begin with merely stopping one day – you should prepare yourself in advance in order to ensure success.

The psychological element of your smoking addiction has a lot to do with daily habits.

The reason that smoking can become so difficult to quit is because the act entrenches itself into your daily life and routines, to the point where you give it little thought. Before they start to seriously think about quitting, most smokers will likely agree that smoking is simply something they do – it’s not something they are particularly aware of on a day to day level.

So the first thing you should do to prepare yourself to quit smoking is to change your smoking habits: switch the brand of cigarettes you smoke, smoke at times of the day you don’t normally, smoke with your other hand.

All these things work towards making you more aware of what you are doing when you smoke, and making smoking integrate itself less seamlessly with your other activities.

Another good example of this is to make the following rule for yourself: when you smoke, you are not allowed to do anything else.

So for example: no smoking while reading, no smoking while using the computer, etc. Force yourself to do nothing but sit and think about cigarettes when you smoke.

This exercise will serve too functions: first of all, it will make you think about smoking much more, and ideally about how you’re going to quit smoking; and second, depending on how much you smoke, it will make you aware of the time you waste doing it.

For most people, the habit will seem much more severe – and thus there will be much more motivation to stop – when you add up all the minutes spent doing it.

To quit smoking is a serious undertaking, and you want to do everything in your power to ensure a high chance of success.

Too many smokers simply try and quit cold turkey, and while this can be effective for some people, for most it doesn’t work, and when you fail it will become harder to work up the morale to try again.

By thinking of your plan to quit smoking as a long term one, you do yourself a lot of favors.

So remember that the act of quitting smoking begins long before you stub out the final cigarette: you should adequately prepare yourself for weeks beforehand by making abrupt changes in your smoking habits.

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Quit Smoking, You Are Now A Non-Smoker

By admin on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | 2 Comments

How To Quit Smoking – Think of Yourself as a Non-Smoker

Almost everyone who smokes understands the serious health consequences involved, and how addictive the habit is. A sign of the powerful nature of a cigarette addiction is that almost all smokers, when you ask them, say they would like to quit smoking. And yet, of course, they continue to smoke.

To quit smoking is a difficult thing and a serious undertaking. With the exception of a few lucky people, to quit smoking requires a multi-faceted plan and mental dedication.

One of the hardest things that people run into when they try to quit smoking is being able to summon the willpower to stay smoke free, especially when around other smokers or in situations that they associate with smoking.

When you first quit smoking you should do your best to avoid prolonged social situations where you can smoke and are surrounded by smokers. Inevitably, though, a time will come where you will be tested.

Every ex-smoker’s fear is the first time you are offered a cigarette or drag by an unaware friend. One of the best willpower tricks to deal with this is to think of yourself as a non-smoker.

So as soon as you quit – even if you only quit yesterday – define yourself as a non-smoker. When someone offers you a cigarette, you should be able to easily say “no thanks, I don’t smoke.”

In a similar way, when you find yourself craving a cigarette, think to yourself “why do I want a cigarette? I don’t smoke.”

Although this trick may seem a little silly, it can work wonders. The reason it is effective is because a smoking addiction has a serious psychological component, and if you’ve smoked for many years a large part of how you define yourself is through smoking.

You think of yourself as a “smoker” even after you’ve quit. If you don’t employ some mental tricks to try and break this habit, you’ll find a return to cigarettes much more tempting and logical – if deep down you’re still thinking of yourself as a smoker, then it will entirely make sense to you that you occasionally crave, or even have, a cigarette.

Mental tricks like this are important in maintaining your willpower when trying to quit smoking.

Unlike like a chemical addiction to an illegal substance, or one that is socially unacceptable, a smoking addiction is very difficult to break because you are being constantly tempted: you see smoking ads in magazines and people smoking in the movies. When you go out to a bar or restaurant there will be people smoking.

As a smoker who is trying to quit, you will be faced with these sorts of temptations each and every day, and it is imperative that you come up with a mental strategy for dealing with them.

One of the most effective mental tricks in your arsenal should, therefore, be the idea that you become an instant non-smoker the minute you butt out your last cigarette.

This will do wonders for you willpower, and greatly increase you overall chances for success in your attempt to quit smoking.

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Quit Smoking, Let Everyone Know You Are Quitting Smoking

By admin on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | 4 Comments

Let Other People Know You’ve Quit Smoking

Almost every smoker reaches a point with their addiction where they want to quit, and for most them is a very difficult task. Although people tend not to think of it this way, an attempt to quit smoking is an attempt to break an extremely serious addiction – in some studies nicotine is shown to be as addictive as cocaine.

It is important therefore, that you provide yourself with as much support as possible when you attempt to quit smoking: when you first quit, you shouldn’t hesitate to tell people.

A lot of people, when they first attempt to quit smoking, have a tendency not to tell the people around them.

There are a few reasons for this: in some cases, the ex-smoker feels that they will be putting pressure on their friends, especially those friends who smoke, or trying to make them feel guiltily; in other cases the ex-smoker will keep the quitting attempt to his or herself because of a subconscious fear of failure – if no one knows you tried to quit, then no one will know if the attempt failed.

If you don’t tell anyone that you’ve quit smoking, you’re leaving yourself completely alone with no support group. Most people will find that if they make a point of telling their friends and associates that they’ve quit smoking, they’ll be rewarded with instant support.

At times of weakness, your friends are going to step in and make sure you don’t smoke in front of them.

As an added bonus, smoking friends that you have are probably going to be very interested in your attempt – after all, all smokers want to quite on some level.

Your smoking friends will show interest in your progress and techniques, which will give you an opportunity for some positive reinforcement – a chance to remind yourself that what you’re trying to do is a good thing, and that you are doing well.

Anyone who is a true friend will neither offer you cigarettes nor allow you to smoke in front of them. This support system is crucial when you attempt something drastic like trying to quit smoking.

Many people, out of a sense of stubbornness, have a tendency to want to “go it alone” when they try and quit smoking. For one reason or another a lot of people don’t like the idea of needing help (this is the same logic, of course, that leads many smokers to say things like “I could quit whenever I want to – I just don’t want to now.”)

In order to be successful in your attempt to quit smoking, though, you will need help, and there is absolutely no shame in seeking support from your friends.

Rather than keeping it under wraps, every smoker who’s trying to quit should inform all of their friends, and ask them to support him or her if they see a lapse.

With a group of friends watching out for you, your attempt to quit smoking will have a much higher chance of success, and may even lead to some of your friends trying to quit as well.

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Quit Smoking, Persist, Stick With It

By admin on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | 1 Comment

Stick With It When Trying to Quit Smoking

Nicotine, as most people know, is a drug with highly addictive properties. It takes very little time for the body to get addicted to it, and the addiction is very difficult break, as any smoker will tell you.

For this reason alone it can be very difficult to quit smoking, but to complicate matters, smoking also has a social element that other addictions lack. Because smoking is both legal and in many situations socially acceptable, it is an extremely hard thing to get away from completely, and many smokers have a very difficult time trying to quit smoking.

One of the reasons that quitting smoking is such a difficult task is that many studies show that the average smoker requires multiple attempts before they quit for good.

Almost any smoker will tell you of times where they’ve quit for a period before taking the habit up again. Usually there is an excuse associated with beginning again: “I quit for 3 months” the smoker will say “but then I broke up with my girlfriend and started again.”

The problem is that when you try and quit smoking, you are playing with your own sense of self-esteem. When you honestly say to yourself that you want to quit, and then you fail, it’s hard not to think of yourself as a failure, and that much harder to try quitting again.

This is why it’s extremely important that you don’t give up if you have a lapse while trying to quit smoking. Remind yourself that this is normal – that this is nothing to be ashamed of – and immediately try to quit again.

You do, however, have to be somewhat careful with this concept: taken to its extreme, it becomes easy to justify a lapse in your non-smoking whenever you choose.

Be careful, therefore, to avoid this line of thinking: “all smokers need a few tries to quit, so I should start again now because I really want to.”

Instead, you have to strike the right balance between understanding that a lapse in your attempt to quit smoking is all too common, while at the same time doing everything in your power to avoid this.

You should never, ever, think of a lapse as part of the overall plan: don’t think when you quit smoking that you’re just going to quit “for a little while.”

If and when you do break down and have a drag or a cigarette after you’ve quit, don’t give up, and make sure that you immediately quit again. Far too many smokers quit for some time, have a bad night where they smoke some cigarettes, and then give up completely and start smoking again in earnest.

Instead, if you lapse, remind yourself that it is normal, and is not an indication of overall failure. Stick with your plan to quit smoking, and most importantly: you should still think of yourself as non-smoker.

By understanding that an attempt to quit smoking is a long term process that requires a healthy dose of stick-to-itiveness, your chances for success are raised considerably.

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