Do you really need a stop smoking product to help you quit smoking? Most people have tried to quit smoking in the past and they know how difficult it is, so they assume that if they were to try and quit again and be successful at it, then they would need a lot of help.
For example, they may have tried the nicotine patch but failed to quit smoking. They have friends who have quit and some of them used the nicotine patch to do so. So that person might be thinking “well, I will definitely need to use at least the nicotine patch, or something else that is even better, in order to help me to successfully quit smoking.”
There is an error in thinking here. It is not the stop smoking products that allow us or help us to quit. It is our conviction and our follow through. The stop smoking aids are just props, really. They might help out a bit here and there, but essentially they are beside the point.
I have a long history of trying to quit smoking and failing at it. I have a long history of trying out different products to help me to stop smoking. I also have a unique position in life where I get to see many, many other people try to do the same thing. They try to quit smoking using various techniques and I get to see their results. So I have a unique perspective, just as we all do, but I have a bit more data than most to work with.
What I am seeing is that the products to quit smoking are not necessarily shams, but they are not magic bullets either. They seem to make very little difference in the end. People who have success with a certain stop smoking product would have, in some cases or maybe in all cases, been able to successfully quit anyway. Even without the help. You see, quitting smoking is about 99 percent conviction.
They say that overcoming an addiction is not about willpower. They are right. But 99 percent of the battle is about your willingness to take action.
When quitting smoking, that action is almost about buying products or taking medication. It is about the basics: using support systems, exercising every day to replace the dopamine you will lose from smoking, forming a support network to reach out to when you have cravings, and so on. Your conviction and willingness to take real action is going to make or break your quit, not products or gimmicks.
