Hey! Do You Really Want To Quit Smoking? Then Read This

I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for the better part if 15 years and walked away from them without the aide of any gum, patches, hypnosis, pills, or anything else and I want to share how I did it with you in order to help you do exactly the same thing. And here's the beautiful thing about my story: I'm not going to try to sell you anything that will supposedly "help" you stop smoking. I'm just going to give you my story and that's not going to cost you a penny.
The first thing to realize about all of this smoking business is that there is a lot of money in it. Not only for the tobacco companies, but for all of the companies that have "quit smoking" products. The industry is HUGE, on both sides of the transaction. What you've probably found, as I did, is that all of the articles that you read and news stories that you hear, drill into your head how difficult quitting smoking is. Therefore, we've all begun to believe exactly that, that quitting is going to be hard. You see, it's in all of the interested parties' best interest that you believe this fact. That way you're much more prone to spending your money in order to get their help.
The biggest part of me quitting smoking was to change what I believed about smoking and quitting smoking. This is what Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said of belief, "Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is." This is a very important quote to remember as we move forward towards a smoke free life. I had to change my belief about smoking. What was it that I believed? I believed that it was going to be difficult to stop smoking. I believed that a cigarette was a stress reliever. I believed that I liked smoking, after all that's what I told myself all the time. I believed that it wasn't going to kill me, otherwise why would I play Russian roulette with cancer sticks? I believed that I was powerless or close to it over the addiction to nicotine.
Those are all of the things that I believed while I smoked. I came to the conclusion that I had to change all of that. Because, after all a belief is simply a thought that we repeat over and over to ourselves. So I figured if I changed my thoughts about smoking, I could change the act of smoking, and do you know what? I was right, because as Wayne Dyer says, "You become what you think about, all day long"
So I decided to change the way I thought about smoking, figuring that if I did that, the beliefs that I had would change. When I heard people around me talk about quitting smoking, I just refrained from the conversation. I began to tell myself how easy quitting was going to be. How I had these cigarettes on the run, and they didn't control me. When I was smoking alone, I would actually hold the cigarette up, look at it, and say out loud, "I've got this. It won't be long".
This sounds corny, I know, but it's what I did while I continued to smoke. About six months passed and one day I reached into my pack to grab a cigarette, only to realize that it was my last one. I took out that cigarette, looked at it and knew that it was my last one. I smoked it and haven't had one since. I had successfully changed my thinking about cigarettes and smoking and now I'm a non-smoker. It was literally as simple as that. You see quitting smoking doesn't have to be difficult, it's simply as difficult as you think or believe it will be.

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country…..Montana!
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Is Smoking Really An Addiction?

As a fifteen year smoker who walked away from smoking forever, without the help of gum, patches, hypnosis, or drugs of any kind, I can't help but pose this question. Now that I'm officially nicotine free after fifteen years, I have to tell you, although everyone and their brother told me that smoking was in fact an addiction, which is to say something that my body couldn't do without, I have to say that's all a bunch of BS.
I'm still walking around, playing with my daughter, writing articles, working, and the like, so obviously my body can do without nicotine. Not only can it do without nicotine, but it does just fine. I've truly come to the conclusion that all of the hype surrounding smoking and NOT smoking is designed to make it harder for people to quit. The biggest reason that I smoked for so long was the fact that I "thought" it was going to be hard to stop.
That's right, now that I'm a non-smoker once again; I've realized that smoking was all in my head. Smoking was a mental barrier, not a physical one. Now I realize that there are probably many of you out there who are saying, "This guy is so full of crap, his eyes are brown!" All I'm telling you here is what's true for me. And the fact that smoking was mental was absolutely true for me.
Did I experience withdrawals when I stopped? Of course I did. But I found that the withdrawals were because I was so used to smoking that not smoking felt strange to me. Smoking had simply become "normal" to me. Once I realized that all I had to do was change what I thought was "normal", I realized that I was no longer going to be a smoker.
I also changed my environment. I stopped hanging around people who smoked and un-knowingly reinforced the fact smoking was "normal". You know when you sit down and think about it, this type of thinking is insanity. Because in reality how could smoking ever be seen as normal? I thought it was "normal" for fifteen years, which is insane thinking. Smoking is not at all normal!
My bottom line is that smoking isn't an addiction. It's a way of thinking. And the beautiful thing about being a human being is the fact that we can change our thinking. Never forget the statement from A Course In Miracles, "Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change." Change the way you think about smoking and your smoking will change.

Trevor Kugler - Co-founder of JRWfishing and founder of yourmoneyconnection.com Trevor has more than 15 years of business experience and currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country - Montana.
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Is Drinking Actually An Addiction?

I stopped drinking quite a while ago and I can't help but ask this question to myself anytime I hear someone saying that drinking is an addiction. Or should I say, becomes an addiction, because of course nothing is an addiction in the beginning. My father was an alcoholic and for most of my adult life I heard that because he was an alcoholic, there was a better than average chance I was going to be one also. I never bought into this line of logic. I know, you can cite many studies that will prove otherwise, but let me remind you, I can find a study somewhere that will 'prove' that Elvis is still alive, so chill out for a moment.
I started drinking when I was eighteen years old. Before I was eighteen I had no interest in drinking, because I was an athlete with college sports aspirations. And contrary to popular belief, drinking doesn't usually work well with athletics. So I just didn't do it. Then my division one college aspirations came to a screeching halt, and drinking became what I thought was a great way to pass the time.
This trend, of drinking being a great way to pass the time, continued for the next TWELVE years. I capitalized the word twelve because it seems as if it took about an hour and a half for twelve years to pass! Now that I'm sober again and look back, that's how it feels. Did I ever drink all day, or have a drink when I woke up in the morning? No, but I did drink on most days. And for the last seven or eight of those twelve years I drank at least six beers on most days. The average was probably more like eight to twelve, but who's counting?
Then my daughter was born and it all changed. I didn't want to drink anymore. Sure, it started with the thought of just cutting down to the consumption of a "normal person", but after stopping for a couple of weeks I realized that I had been self medicating myself with alcohol for most of my adult life. The biggest reason that I wanted to stop was that I knew deep down in the core of my being that drinking alcohol wasn't at all cool, and I simply couldn't be the guy who tells their daughter not to drink when that's exactly what I did. I wanted to be the guy who could tell stories about how he used to drink, and most importantly WHY he chooses not to anymore.
So I stopped drinking. A guy who drank six to twelve beers a day, and even more if I was really "feeling it", stopped. I didn't have any withdrawals or anything. The only thing I had were realizations about how I was and what I used to do. So now I have to ask the question, "Is drinking really an addiction?", because is sure doesn't seem like it to me. And I most certainly drank enough and for long enough to become 'addicted'. The biggest thing that I've realized, for me, is that drinking was about behaviors. I got so used to the behaviors that they seemed normal. Drinking had become "normal" to me.
To me it's a funny thing, because now the idea of going into a bar just sounds stupid. What am I going to do? Sit around with a couple of other people and pontificate about the affairs of the day or my perceived problems? No, not any more, I spent twelve years doing just that and have realized that such activities accomplished absolutely nothing.

Trevor Kugler - Co-founder of JRWfishing.com Trevor has more than 15 years of business experience and 25 years of fishing experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country - Montana.
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