Quitting Smoking - Here's 5 Powerful Reasons Why You Should Do It Today

Quite often, smokers think they should stop smoking but don't fully understand why they should so they don't make the commitment to stop.

Some people think it's too hard so they just keep smoking. Others put off any attempt to stop because they think it will be something they can do another day, in other words, they haven't yet understood why they should stop.

Alright, if you're a smoker, let's explore the main reasons why quitting today would be a good thing.

- Your Health

It's often said that without your health you have nothing. Health, good health, is something we are more aware of today and is what most people want, so that they can have a lifestyle they enjoy - and to do so for many years.

The negative health impact of smoking is well documented. Every day, diseased which are directly caused by or are related to smoking are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people - cancers, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases.

All right, I'll back off the doom and gloom - for just a moment. As a non-smoker, you'll notice more energy - a breathing is easier - and getting up the stairs will be much easier. Your health and your well being improves, straight up !

After giving up, smokers often say - "Feeling this good isn't something I'd expected." Mmm ... sounds good to me. From the time you stop smoking, your chances of contacting serious smoking-related diseases begin to reduce. I haven't had a cigarette for over 20 years and now the chances of me developing lung cancer are as low as if I'd never smoked.

- Your Family

What's the next most important thing in your life after your health ? Your family. Maybe it's as important as your health. Family members, in my experience, care about - and even worry about - the health smokers in the family. You see, they don't want you to be unhealthy and they want you to live a long, healthy and happy life, sharing the love you have with them, watching them grow, celebrating their successes and being their to help and support them when they need it. So the way I see it, if you're family is important to you, it's kinda selfish for you to stick with the smoking habit.

What that happens, what you are saying to them - clearly, whether you believe it or not - is that smoking cigarettes for you is more important than they are to you.

Do you really think that ?

- Your Finances

Obviously, I don't know what part of the world you are in as you read this so I don't know the cost of a pack of cigarettes where you are. And I don't know how much money you take home in your pay check after taxes. Countries, particularly in the developed world, tax cigarettes heavily. One of the reasons that governments impose these taxes is to make it expensive for smokers and to discourage them from smoking.

You may find this hard to believe, but I can assure you, some of the clients Ive worked with spend as much as 20% of their take-home pay on cigarettes. Let's be blunt here : If that's you in this case, then you are working one day per week just to pay for your cigarettes. You pick a day - Tuesday, Friday, any day of the week, you nominate as your 'cigarette day' and KNOW that all the hard work for that day is for you to buy cigarettes.

Now, you may not be paying such a high percentage of your disposable income. But you do the math - how much each week are you spending. Then I want you to take that amount in notes - and put a match to them. Burn them up, throw them on the fire if you like. Wow - is that 80... 100 dollars you've just burned ? Maybe it's less. But it's gone. You've just done in a minute or so what you otherwise spread over a week. At least it hasn't impacted on your health this way - but the money is gone, nevertheless.

When you stop smoking, here's what I'm going to suggest you do. Put the same amount you used to spend on cigarettes straight into a saving account in the bank from each paycheck. That way, you won't miss it. Let's say you were only spending $50 a week on cigarettes. In a years time, you will have a tidy $2,600 you wouldn't have had otherwise. Could be a nice holiday. Or you could keep on saving and investing. Either way, you get benefits all round.

- Your Self Esteem

For a smoker, this might sound a bit of a stretch from where your thinking is at now, but I can assure you most people who stop smoking develop a much more positive self-esteem. They have a greater sense of valuing themselves. Why ? Because they've realized that when they were a smoker, that cigarettes were controlling much of their behavior and impacting on their activities. By stopping smoking, people then know that the cigarettes no longer controls their life, that they now do. They resultant increase in the level of self-esteem is powerful. They feel so much better about themselves and what they can achieve.

- Your Social Connections

Unless you've been living as a hermit, you'll know the impact smoking has socially these days. There are so many places where you can't smoke, that smokers have to leave the building - and leave whatever activity they are engaged in - to go somewhere to have a cigarette. What is also happening, is that there are less and less smokers and this means that people who want a cigarette have to leave the group and perhaps on their own go for a cigarette.

So it is much more socially acceptable, as I'm sure you would have observed, to be a non-smoker. And if you're a smoker, members of the opposite sex who are non-smokers will not want to know you. But you're likely to already know that.

Ok, so I've hit you fairly bluntly, haven't I? I hope that in reading this - if you've made it all the way - that you'll see the advantages of taking the steps, if you've been unsure or hesitating, to stop smoking today.

Graham Moore