What if I told you that along with being smoke-free immediately, that you would not have any cravings whatsoever? Ever!

And finally, what if I also said that with this absolutely 100% guaranteed method; there has never been a single recorded case of relapse! Everyone who ceases to smoke via this method remains smoke-free forever.

Would you be one of the first to line up? I sure would be if it were presented like that.

Well, the sad truth is that this ‘magic method’ isn’t really all that magical - it’s called ‘death’.

Now I’m not trying to be morbid, but if you really think about it, dying is the only way of quitting smoking that can make those outlandish claims.

The point I am try to raise here is that yes, I know you desperately want to quit smoking. You’re not alone. 90% of all smokers would like to quit, in fact. Unfortunately there are products out there that make claims just as outlandish as the ones stated above as they tout their wares.

Don’t fall prey to anything that promises ’something for nothing’, because the chances you’ll end up disappointed are high.

The better course of action is to realize that you do truly want to quit smoking and it’s not just a half-hearted desire or attempt if only there were a ‘magic pill’ that would do all the work for you. Then from that point on make it your mission to find as much information as you can on the reasons why you smoke and what you can do to give yourself the ammunition you need before making the effort to actually do it. Information is the key to doing anything well or even right the first time. You wouldn’t attempt to re-wire a broken appliance without learning and understanding what you are doing in regards to electricity. If you did, it may come as quite a shock later.

The same goes for quitting smoking. You need to know your triggers - what causes you to light up in the first place. You need to know what nicotine addiction really is and isn’t. It isn’t the same for everybody. Also, some people have addictive personalities while others don’t. Quitting will be a much different process for those folks.

Ultimately you should seek out and learn the facts - the truth if you will - about the realistic success rates of each smoking cessation product. To put it bluntly, watch out for those who claim success rates of 97% with no effort on your part. Jokingly, the only way these products will help you quit smoking is by taking your money so you can’t afford to buy cigarettes.

The Canadian government and the Center for Disease Control also publish census statistics which I have incorporated into the EndtheHabit.com website. There is a wealth of relevant information available there and on the internet in general, so I beg of you, find out all you can about quitting and then do it - once and for all.

To your good health,

Darren Warmuth

Even though you are looking to convince yourself or someone else that you truly desire to quit, by saying ‘try’, you are conditioning your subconscious beliefs for potential failure.

Let me give you an example. My wife has a fear of roller coasters and fast rides. I know she doesn’t haven’t a fear or heights or a fear of going at the speeds the coasters go, but for some reason I have not yet been able to determine, she doesn’t like roller coasters.

In any case, there have been occasions when my son and I have been able to convince her to stand in line with us and have got her to say ‘I’ll try.’ But here’s the thing; every time we get near the loading lane, she bails out and decides to wait for us at the end instead.

Her way out? She only said she would ‘try’. And trying as we all know doesn’t really commit you to much. The same is true of smoking. I realize that saying ‘I’ll try’ is what everyone else says, so when you want to quit, you say the same thing. However as we know, this will only soften your efforts whether you realize it or not because you have now given yourself a way out.

Talk to any smoker who has gone through this process, some of them more than once, and you will find that when they set out to achieve their goal of quitting they said ‘I’ll try’ and when they failed, they state ‘Oh well, I tried.’

Try and do that with this statement - "I am quitting (enter your chosen date) for good. For the good of my health; for the good of my family and for the good of my finances. FOR GOOD!" No excuses.

You see the difference. You cannot allow any alternative options or ‘outs’ for yourself. You must commit fully and stick to your resolution. Of course your commitment doesn’t have to say exactly that but it must state the most powerful reasons as to why you want to quit.

Write your commitment down - everywhere. Carry it in your purse or wallet; your coat pocket; in your car; your bathroom or anywhere else you will see it to remind yourself the reasons why you want to quit smoking. Refer to these commitments often - it will make your efforts that much more solid.

To your health,

If you only have to answer to yourself when an overwhelming urge strikes, that’s only one person the nicotine beast has to overcome, but if you have a group, that’s a whole other story.

So how do you hold yourself accountable to others?

It kind of works backwards to just being accountable to yourself. For example, let’s say you’ve been off cigarettes for a week and for whatever silly reason your mind has come up with, you figure you need a smoke. Well, before you can do that, you have to battle your inner demons and then live with the guilt that you have failed. But the nicotine beast, as I said, is very strong and you are only one person. Many people fall down at this point.

But what if you had five loyal soldiers standing between the nicotine demon and you? Ah, now that’s a completely new ball game.

Here’s how it works.

Set up a small support group for yourself whether it be via email, telephone, or a support forum. Tell these people your goal to quit smoking but also ask them not to pester you about it - just to be there when you need help and positive support. Use them for encouragement.

But here’s the thing. Let’s say you are once again at the point of convincing yourself that you need a cigarette. Only this time instead of just coping with your own guilty conscience, you have to call these five people and say to them. "Hello, it’s me. I just needed to call you and tell you that I have decided to start smoking again."

And that’s all you get to say. No more. Then you just have to sit back and listen without getting angry or upset. If you can make it through all five members of your support team and you still think that their advice and support is misguided and your deep down beliefs that you should quit are suddenly wrong, then by all means have that ‘one’ cigarette. But I warn you now, don’t think that you’ll just have the one - you won’t. It’s always, always, always the first one that will get you.

This is why the support system works so well - because now it’s six (your support team plus you) against the ‘one’.

As I say, the more you know about quitting, the more successful you will be. So get all the information you need BEFORE you try to quit. It’s much easier, believe me.

To your success,

Darren Warmuth

Darren Warmuth is the developer and founder of the End the Habit Stop Smoking Program.

For most smokers the thought of quitting rarely crosses their minds.  That is until one factor or another brings the idea to the forefront of their thoughts.  Perhaps they have had a health scare.  Perhaps they are finally noticing the toll that smoking is taking on their bodies.  Whatever the reason is doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that in actually taking the steps to quit, education and preparation MUST come before you stop.

Preparation and education is the key to everything, including quitting smoking.  You wouldn’t attempt to rebuild your car’s engine just because you bought a set of tools off the shelf, or sew a dress for your daughter’s wedding after picking up your first ever sewing machine, so please don’t think that you can buy an off the shelf smoking cessation aid and you are home free.  You would have just as much luck getting your car’s engine back together properly as quitting smoking.  Oh sure, eventually you might get it right, but why waste your efforts when the proper information is available to help you be successful the first time.

Scour the internet.  Look at the available stop smoking programs and really compare them.  Don’t just buy the first one you see.  And make sure that the program you are buying is grounded in education and preparation about quitting first and supplements or cessation aids second.  You should be encouraged to take your time to learn and prepare as opposed to placing your faith in a product that states that there is no effort required on your part. 

Nothing comes without a little effort from you - especially this.  Remember, quitting is the easy part - you just stop.  It’s the preparations you take before you quit that determines if you’ll be successful or not.  So make sure you have all the data you need before you try and you will be the success you want to be.

To your lasting success,

Darren Warmuth

Darren Warmuth is a non-smoker of 10 years and the founder of the End the Habit Stop Smoking Program

So here’s what you need to do.  You need to put down in writing the things you want to accomplish (quitting smoking) and come up with the reasons why.  And while you are doing this, write down all the reasons why you can’t (your excuses). 

Just putting excuses down on paper so that they are something solid you can see is enough to make some people look at how silly they really are.  For others, they may have to analyze their list of excuses and figure out why they believe these reasons to be true.  Usually it is due to repetition.  You’ve been telling yourselves for years that these are the reasons why you smoke, and if you tell yourself something enough times, eventually it will become an ingrained belief, whether it is the truth or not.

I’ll give you a few of the most common ones to start with but it is up to you to do this for every single reason why you think you smoke.

"If I quit smoking, I’ll gain weight."

The blunt answer to this one is ‘who cares!’  Studies have shown that you are better off to be 70+ pounds overweight than to smoke when it comes to your health, but that’s not a goal you are looking to attain either.  The truth is that yes, some people do gain weight after quitting, but this is usually less than twenty pounds and if that frightens you, then this problem can be easily remedied by careful and detailed planning before you quit.  Get it through your mind that you are not going to substitute food for cigarettes and if you do, it is healthy foods like celery, carrots and fruit, not candy bars, chips and other ‘comfort food’.

"I enjoy smoking too much to quit."

If that’s the case, then why are you reading an article on quitting smoking?  Truth is that I also said this exact same thing.  It’s purely a defense mechanism so you can justify why you smoke to other people.  The problem is that as I said before, if you say something enough times, eventually you will come to believe it.  This is no different.  So it’s time to be completely honest with yourself.  Do you really enjoy smoking or is it just a lie you’ve come to believe?  What do you love about it?  Is it the coughing, the breathlessness, the stale smell in your hair, clothes, car and home?  What is it that you truly appreciate about what smoking does for you?  When you look at it that way and actually write the answers down, I think you’ll find that you really don’t like smoking very much at all.

The thing is that I am not trying to come across as mean or condescending, so please don’t take what I am saying the wrong way.  No, what I am trying to do is be truly helpful by telling you that none of the excuses that you are currently using or have used in the past do anything for you other than keep you smoking and once you come to terms with this fact, the easier quitting will be.

You can do this.

To your health,

Darren Warmuth

Darren Warmuth is the founder and developer of the End the Habit Stop Smoking Program.

Don’t get me wrong - the health benefits, increased stamina and feelings of better overall fitness are all wonderful but what I really want to tackle here is the pure unabashed lavish treatment you should drape on yourself once you do quit smoking.

Money or affordability more correctly, is one of the major concerns of people who wish to stop smoking. Surprisingly, the affordability of smoking can sometimes outrank health benefits as to why some people do want to quit. And that’s fair enough for as I have always stated, ‘It doesn’t matter how or why you quit, as long as you quit.’

But here’s the thing, to really want the efforts you are putting in, you need to reward yourself frequently. And not just with vague, uninspiring goals but with some instant and enjoyable treats.

We all know that smoking costs a fortune and if you quit it will save you piles of money. However you need to know what you are going to do with those piles of money. Do not just commit yourself to putting the funds towards bland goals like the mortgage, or the bills, or in a savings account - that’s uninspiring. It’s boring and tired. How are you supposed to get yourself pumped up with rewards like these?

What do I suggest? Well, here are my thoughts on the matter - - - - - blow ALL the money you save by not smoking and do it frivolously.

What! I can’t do that, that’s irresponsible!

Really? And you don’t think pissing away thousands of dollars a year for the last how many years while harming your health wasn’t foolish as well? Figure it out. If you continued to smoke you would literally be wasting hundreds of dollars a month and thousands of dollars a year without any return and without any real enjoyment, so why shouldn’t you be allowed to use that same money to treat yourself right - at least for a while?

If you are a lady, use this money to get yourself the facial or spa treatment that you’ve always wanted or buy that new dress you’ve had your eye on for the last three months or book yourself a vacation to someplace warm and tropical. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it is a treat you enjoy immensely and fully.

For the men, spend the funds by going to a sporting event you could never justify or buy yourself some new tools for the workshop or take your wife away for a romantic weekend away in her favorite city. Who knows, you may just end up being doubly rewarded.

The thing is that you need to do something that really gets your blood pumping. You need rewards that inspire you to quit and ones that are also attainable when you do. Set realistic rewards for yourself and enjoy them to the fullest.

Now having said all that, you don’t need to do this forever. Truthfully, most people will have a hard time with this after a few months, but that doesn’t matter, reward yourself as long as you want with the money you are saving by not smoking. You deserve it!

Here’s to you enjoying the rewards,

Darren Warmuth

Darren Warmuth is the founder and developer of the End the Habit Stop Smoking Program.

The stool or more correctly, the legs of the stool are a metaphor for what I feel is one of the most important aspects of quitting smoking - SUPPORT. Picture if you will sitting down at the computer to write a letter on a stool with only one leg and how difficult it would be to remain on it. Sure, you can say ‘If the leg is in the middle of the stool, balancing shouldn’t be too hard.’ True, but what say the one leg is attached to the outer perimeter as normal? Do you think it would be much harder to concentrate on finishing your letter if most of your attention is spent trying not to fall over? Probably very difficult, I would think.

Now let’s add a leg to the stool. Does it become any easier to sit on? Of course it does. Now you only have to worry about the stool moving side-to-side or front-to-back, but not both so you only have to give it half as much attention. Much easier to concentrate on the task at hand.

Let’s now add the third leg, which by the way has been shown to be the most stable arrangement for a stool, and what do we get. Right - perfect stability. We can now sit with complete confidence upon our three legged stool and focus all our attention on our letter because we no longer have the fear of falling over (failure).

How does this metaphor relate to quitting smoking? Well, like the one legged stool, if you attempt to quit smoking on your own with no other support, it will be that much more difficult to stay focused. Why try to do it alone when there are friends out there who would be more than willing to help you. Adding another couple of legs to your efforts would be recommended to get more stability (support), but four, five or more friends would not be out of line either.

Although having five legs of support on a stool may look funny, having this number of support people at your disposal when quitting smoking is smart. But be sure to inform whomever you ask to help you that they don’t harp on or badger you about quitting, only to be there when you need their valued assistance. And if you are courageous enough, and I hope you are, make a pact with yourself that if at any time after you quit you are tempted by yourself or someone else that having ‘just one’ wouldn’t hurt, you must call all your ‘legs’ and say "Hi, it’s me. I’ve decided to start smoking again." If you can make it through all of these phone calls and still believe that ‘one’ won’t hurt, I’d be very surprised.

Get the right support and you will be free.

To your continued success,

Darren Warmuth

Darren Warmuth is the founder and developer of the End the Habit Stop Smoking Program.

So here is my advice - from a smoker of twenty years and a non-smoker of ten.

It doesn’t matter if you want to quit because you have smoker’s cough; a serious health scare; desire a better environment for your children; or just want to quit for yourself because you know it is the right thing to do - the absolute first thing you must realize is that the desire to quit alone is not strong enough for most people - 97% in fact.

I know you are desperate. I know you want to quit right now and at this moment, and I feel your pain. But I beg of you, don’t do it!

Before you attempt to quit, you must first remove as much emotion from the process as humanly possible for although you are depressed or emotionally charged at the moment, it is not possible to maintain that level of anger or desperation long enough to see you through the quitting process.

It is important that you write down all the emotions and reasons you want to quit while in this heightened state of awareness, but it is equally important that you only use those reasons to help you on your journey to becoming a non-smoker - not to try and keep yourself wound up.

Note your reasons for quitting and then fortify them by searching the internet for as much useful information as you can find. Information is power. The more you know about the task at hand, the less hold the nicotine monster will have over you.

Once you have the information you desire, I encourage you to find a stop smoking program that addresses your concerns about quitting and then purchase it. Whether that is the program I developed or someone else’s, it does not matter as long as it appeals to your wants and needs and gives you the resolve to beat this nasty habit.

No matter which program you ultimately choose, you must do one all important thing - YOU MUST USE IT!

Buying a program and then leaving it in the package will do nothing other than keep you smoking because you have a stop smoking kit available that you will ‘get to someday’. Someday is too late. Get the information you need - order a program - and use it. You’ll be glad you did.

Quitting smoking is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do for yourself - believe me!

To your success,

Darren Warmuth

Darren Warmuth is the developer and founder of the End the Habit Stop Smoking Program.

If you are thinking about quitting smoking, do not make plans for, nor allow for any ’slips’, ‘just ones’ or any ‘accidents’ for that matter. The old saying goes - ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’ but I would also like to add to that the advice of ‘If you plan for slips or accidents, you are more likely to have one as opposed to if you adamantly tell yourself that there will be no allowance for moments of weakness.’

Having said that, it does happen, so here is what I recommend you do. Chastise yourself until you feel completely guilty. Realistically I don’t have to tell you this part because you will automatically do it to yourself anyway. Then once you have raked yourself over the coals, contact your support group (you do have a support group, don’t you?) and let them know what has happened. Use their strength to rebuild your resolve.

If by chance you have had more than one ’slip’ or have repeated ’slips’, it is time to be honest with yourself. I know that a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, but please don’t send me any letters because I have probably spoken to more smokers and non-smokers about this subject than most people. My advice is this. Stop trying to fool yourself into thinking that these occasional slips are fine and are just part of the normal quitting process - they aren’t!

If you are continually ’slipping’ you are doing yourself more harm than good because the ‘just ones’ are eventually going to turn into what you used to smoke or more. Believe me, it happens every time.

If continual slips are occurring, you are better off to realize what is happening and admit to yourself that you have failed this time. And that’s okay, because it is better that you admit it, write this attempt off, and go back to finding the information and incentives you need to quit successfully than to relapse slowly back into oblivion. Better to realize that you have missed your target this time around and get back on a new and better course than to continue on smoking for the next twenty years.

Be strong, stay strong and be Free!

Darren Warmuth

Darren Warmuth is the developer and founder of the End the Habit Stop Smoking Program.