This article was first published by NursingSchools.net courtesy of Ken Martin.

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Everyone knows that smoking is one of the most unhealthy things you can do to yourself, but still, many people continue to smoke because they simply can’t quit. If you’re struggling to quit smoking, you may be ready to do some crazy things to kick the habit, and we’ve got just the thing for you. These are 50 creative and crazy ways to finally put out the smoke monster.

Health

Here are several healthy things you can do to stop smoking.

1. Have a heart attack: A smoking-induced heart attack might be just the ticket to finally scare you into quitting.
2. Get your teeth cleaned: Invest in a good cleaning so that you’ll be sorry to mess up your pearly whites with smoke.
3. Eat booster foods: Garlic and ginger are good for pulling smoking chemicals out of your body.
4. Brush your teeth when you want to smoke: Any time you have a craving, just brush your teeth or swish with mouthwash to enjoy a clean feeling instead of smoke.
5. Become pregnant: Once you are carrying an unborn child who depends on you for its health, you will feel too guilty to light up.
6. Take up mountain biking: There’s no way you can bike up a mountain as a smoker!

Support

These ideas may provide you with the support you need to kick the habit.

1. Start a Facebook group: John Mellencamp’s son started a Facebook group, and if it attracts enough people, his father will kick the habit.
2. Make it a family affair: Ask other smokers in your family to join you in quitting.
3. Make a bet: Bet one of your smoking friends that if one of you quits for a month, the other has to buy a steak dinner.
4. Pay a fine: Agree to quit smoking or pay a fine to a friend.
5. Wear a sign: Wear a sign that asks people not to sell or give you any cigarettes.
6. Start a blog: Be accountable by telling your quitting story.
7. Announce you’re quitting on social media: Tell your friends and family of your plans to quit so that they can support-and pester you-about it.

Treatments & Tools

Here are some ways to get help with your goal to quit smoking.

1. Laser: These lasers are said to produce a reaction like nicotine.
2. Acupuncture: Acupuncture may be able to help you quit.
3. Quitter: Use Quitter’s service to track how many cigarettes you smoke each day.
4. Keep a journal: Each time you get a craving, write about it in your journal to identify your craving triggers.

Sticky Situations

These situations will make it difficult to smoke and easier to quit.

1. Clean your house: Clean your house and make smoking off limits so you’ll be forced to smoke outside.
2. Get hired where you can’t smoke: Some workplaces have a strict no-smoking policy, so get hired and quit or get fired.
3. Go camping: Explore the great outdoors for a few days with your cigarettes purposefully left at home.
4. Hang out where smoking isn’t allowed: Go to churches, theaters, libraries, and museums.

Distractions & Replacements

Use these methods to run interference against smoking.

1. Sleep when your cravings are the worst: During bad withdrawl hours, just take a nap.
2. Chew Milkbones: One woman killed cravings by chewing on Milkbone dog biscuits.
3. Do something physically engaging: Bike, run or do something else you wouldn’t think to smoke while you’re doing it.
4. Play games instead: Instead of taking a cigarette break at work, play Solitaire.
5. Light something else: If you have to light up, do it to a candle or incense.
6. Take up a new hobby: Combat boredom or loneliness with something you can be passionate about.
7. Go nuts: Eat a few nuts in their shell when you want to smoke to occupy your hands and mouth.
8. Play the lottery: Instead of spending money on cigarettes, allow yourself to play the occasional lottery ticket without guilt.
9. Be more comfortable: If you smoke to feel more comfortable socially, try counseling, public speaking classes, or a makeover.

Psychological

These ideas will help get smoking out of your head.

1. Bury your cigarettes: Wrap your packs in a plastic bag and bury it in the backyard so you’ll have to dig them up each time you want a smoke.
2. Use creative visualization: Imagine cigarettes wearing boxing gloves and beating you up-and you should punch back.
3. Get hypnotized: Hypnosis can work for some smokers.

Motivation

Stay motivated to quit smoking with these ideas.

1. Visit lung cancer victims: Go to the hospital and sit down with patients who have smoke-induced lung cancer, and see what they have to say about smoking.
2. Spend the money elsewhere: Take the money you’d normally spend on cigarettes, and treat yourself to something fun instead.
3. Remember other difficult things you’ve conquered: Keep in mind challenges you’ve faced in the past to give yourself confidence.
4. Look at photos of lifelong smokers: Check out photographs of people who never stopped smoking to see how you’ll look if you don’t quit.
5. Plan treats: Along each milestone, have a reward prepared to give yourself in return for making it so far without a smoke.
6. Put your savings in a glass jar: Physically see how much you’re not spending on cigarettes.
7. Learn about smoking facts: Look up dismal facts about the disadvantages of smoking.
8. Imagine your children smoking: Each time you want to smoke, think about what your kids would look like smoking-because it’s likely that they will if they grow up with a smoking parent.
9. Plan a cruise: At the end of a period in which you haven’t smoked, have a reward set up like an Alaskan cruise or visit to an old friend who wants you to quit.

Gross & Painful

Definitely on the crazy end of the spectrum, these methods are gross, maybe even painful, but effective.

1. Drink baking soda: This woman mixed baking soda in water and it killed her desire to smoke.
2. Wear a rubber band: Snap a rubber band against your wrist when you want to smoke to associate it with unpleasantness.
3. Look at smoking disease photos: Check out photos of diseased lungs, mouths, and throats so they’ll be burned into your mind any time you want to smoke.
4. Keep just one: Hang onto a solitary cigarette and light it when you need a smoke, then extinguish it and save it for later.
5. Smell some wet cigarettes: Gather up some butts, put some water on them and sniff the mess to gross yourself out about smoking.
6. Fill a room with smoke: Close off windows and doors, then light a few cigarettes and let them burn to see how gross it is. Be careful to do this with supervision.
7. Check out YouTube: Watch anti-smoking videos of oral cancers, brains, and more.
8. Smoke yourself sick: Chain smoke until you’re just sick of it, crush your pack and don’t look back.

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]]> http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/50-creative-and-crazy-ways-to-quit-smoking-once-and-for-all/feed/ 8 http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-to-break-any-bad-habit/ http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/how-to-break-any-bad-habit/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:13:23 +0000 Farouk Radwan http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/?p=2869

Why do people have bad habits?

Do you know that some people smoke only to control anxiety?
The automatic movement that the person does while smoking makes the person believe that he is in control of his environment and that’s why most smokers smoke when they feel anxious. It is in fact, one of the main reasons people start to smoke in the first place!

Do you know that some shopping addicts only buy things to improve their moods and not because they really want any thing they are buying? Those people go for quick fixes such as shopping to improve their bad moods or ease their stress. Ironically, these quick fixes actually worsen their moods and increase their stress (when they realize how much they’ve spent) when the high has faded.

Do you know that most drug addicts only use drugs to escape from their unsolved problems? Had those people learned, or had the chance to learn how to be brave or strong enough they might have never became drug addicts to begin with.

As you can see many of our bad habits are just a way to hide our vulnerabilities and mask our weaknesses.

The only way to break the bad habit in such a case is by learning how to deal with our weaknesses instead of focusing on building self discipline. Of course self discipline will help but without dealing with the root causes you will never manage to break your bad habits.

Why health warnings don’t work?
Lots of countries put pictures of diseased people on cigarette packs and while the pictures look really horrible they seem not to have any effect on some smokers.

Why is that?

Simply because each one of us has got his own unique values and belief system, a health warning would only affect a person who values health greatly. That’s why such warnings scare some people and have no effect on others.

Now go to a woman who is concerned about her looks and tell her that smoking can lead to severe acne and see her response. Most probably you will find the woman much more motivated to quit smoking than before.

In short, in order to quit a habit you need to know how badly it affects your core values.

Welcome to the real world

Usually after giving up a certain habit some people say that their lives have become boring. For example “after I stopped drinking my life became boring and uninteresting”

Usually I reply telling those people, Welcome to your real world!!

You have been escaping from reality for years and for the first time in your life you are now experiencing your true reality.

Instead of escaping to the bad habit you must work on fixing your bad world because after all it’s the main reason you are escaping to a bad habit! This is very scary to do. It takes a brave person. But the results are profound and life long if you can tough it out.

Behind every bad habit is a good intention

Our minds are intelligent enough not to ruin our lives without a strong reason.
Usually there is a very good intention behind every habit.
A computer addict might have became so because his life would have been really boring if he didn’t spend all that time in front of the computer.

In that case that guy should work on making his life interesting without a computer so that he doesn’t need to spend lots of hours in front of it. By providing a good habit that would satisfy the same need that the bad habit was trying to satisfy that person would easily be able to get over his bad habit.

In short, breaking bad habits is all about getting a deeper insight of the habit and the need its trying to satisfy.

M.Farouk Radwan is the founder of http://www.2knowmyself.com, the ultimate source for self understanding!

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Our lives are full of things we “should” do but for a range of reasons we don’t do them. Whatever it is – exercise, healthy eating, saving money – most of the time we choose to take the easier road, the road well traveled.

While I’m certainly not immune to this, there are plenty of things I don’t do that I know I should, I feel that understand the why is the first step to making real progress.

1. Being Comfortable (and Lack of a Burning Desire)

It all starts with how we feel about our life. How we feel greatly affects our motivations. Most people are in some form of comfort, but it’s a negative comfort. It’s a comfort where you’re not making progress towards your dreams but you’re not in that much pain either.

Don’t be in this space.

I’ve been comfortable. I live in a great area, there’s food on the table and I have shelter, and it’s this very reason that a bunch of my income dried up over the past couple of years. I’d been making great progress, which was motivating but then de-motivational forces (mainly school) and my own lethargy brought me into a false form of comfort. And now I have to work my way back to where I was.

The best motivators are pain and progress.

When you are in a situation that genuinely hurts you find a solution. It’s not a matter of making excuses, you just do it. And likewise, when you’re making progress the same thing happens, although from a much more positive standpoint. You feel great and the momentum-based achievement keeps you doing the things you should be doing.

But pain will just hurt and progress will be non-existent unless you are inspired or have a burning desire to make a positive change in your life. I have a burning desire to be known as a writer, and as thus I write, I write some more, and then I finish all that writing off with some more writing.

On the other hand I know I should go for more walks, eat more fruit and veggies, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Why don’t I do it? I’m not in a bad enough situation to motivate myself – I’m comfortable – and a although a good walk makes me feel great I rarely feel inspired to go on one.

It’s difficult to transform a “should” into a “must” (as Tony Robbins would put it), but there are a few approaches:

1. Wait till it gets so bad it hurts. This isn’t recommended because pain isn’t always the best motivator (there are exceptions remember) and it’s sort of silly to put yourself in a worse situation to get better.
2. Commit to doing it once. Give it a go. Just once. For ages I knew I should start writing a blog like this, but I put it off. Then I started it, and I loved it. Give it a go.
3. Understand the reason why. Understand why you should be doing something. Understand what you’re missing out on.

2. Distractions

Burning desires aren’t always obvious though. They get drowned out in a sea of distractions – trying to do or consume too much. Minimalism isn’t for everyone, and that’s fine, but at least understand and reaffirm the amazingness of having and doing less. And when I say “do less” I’m not talking about being idle, but cutting down on the quantity of activities you do, so each one can be done with deliberate focus.

Cut out everything in your life that doesn’t fulfill you, giving you room to get back to the basics and do the things that you know you should be doing.

3. Excuses

Excuses are the next hold up. For everyone reason you should do something there are 2 far fetched reasons, that you can easily convince yourself to be true, that you shouldn’t do it. And in my own experience the only effective and long lasting way to get rid of excuses is accountability.

Create a mastermind group or find a friend who has similar goals to remain accountable for your actions. Tynan has shared a twist on this system which is to give your accountability buddy the power to dare you to do something displeasing and vice versa.

4. Confusion

Although, excuses aren’t always just excuses, they may stem from confusion, and that’s a different problem entirely. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with all the things you should be doing and “being busy” is one of the most common, and easy to swallow ruses that few people will fault you on, even when it’s pure crap. And that’s dangerous.

To fight the overwhelm sit back with a pen and paper and write out a clear plan of what you should be doing. Break it down into numbers. If, for example, you know you should be running, write out how many minutes per day you should run, or how far, and how much of it is sprinting or jogging, or just walking.

Tasks appear monumental as a whole, but after breaking them down into bite-sized bits they amazingly fit quite well into your lifestyle even if the task itself hasn’t changed.

5. Misuse of Negativity

Tim Ferriss has discussed pessimism as a productivity system, but a constructive use of negativity goes beyond just productivity. According to The Law of Attraction focusing on negativity will bring that into your life. And to a certain extent I agree.

But negativity can be used constructively as long as you don’t dwell on it. The majority of the time you should focus on what inspires you and your burning desire, but whenever you feel particularly unmotivated, ask yourself “What will happen if I don’t do this?” See an unhealthy you if you don’t go for that run, or an unfulfilled you if you choose not to follow your passion.

6. Money Doesn’t Motivate

In the video below Dan Pink discusses how money is a weak motivator. Anything remotely creative or loosely defined task simply won’t be done better or faster if wads of cash are your driving force.

What does this mean?

Live for something greater than money. Money isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but you need to find a goal or purpose that goes beyond financial success to be persistent, or even to do something well.

7. Lack of Ambition

Everyone has ideas about ambition but, at least in my experience, setting goals that are ambitious are more likely to be acted upon. Going back to that running example, there are countless stories about non-runners who sign up for a marathon months in advanced, and then magically in that time they go from a couch potato to a competitive runner.

Us human folk adapt to the goals we set. When we set a small goal there’s a lack of excitement. Sure, I could set a goal to walk down the street and back, but that’s boring. Make it a 10km jog or 400m sprint though and suddenly it’s something to work towards. There’s a chance of failure so it becomes a gamble.

What is tricky though is setting goals that aren’t too beyond you while remaining ambitious. I’d love to beat Usain Bolt in a 100m dash, and it’d be an ambitious goal, but it’s just not going to happen. Consistent failure to attain an ambitious goal will eventually leave you unmotivated and back in your old routine. Be ambitious in the sense that there’s a chance of failure, but you feel confident of eventual achievement.

8. Uncertainty

And then there’s the last, and perhaps most deadly reason we don’t do things we should do: uncertainty.

If you’re uncertain something will lead to the result you want or expect it can be difficult to commit to it. There’s a constant stream of doubt fuelling excuses and less of a desire to persist (which is one of the secrets of success). To overcome uncertainty model yourself after other people who have achieved what you desire. Read autobiographies and story-driven accounts to understand their mindset, the process they took and the challenges they faced.

David Turnbull is a Guest Blogger For PickTheBrain and is the founder of DavidTurnbull.com.

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Many people go through life acting like trained circus animals.  They repeat the same antics they observed their neighbors, parents and family performing.  What they often don’t realize is that they are wrecking their lives.

Do you know someone that performs these tricks?

Understanding that these tricks change good lives into a zoo is the first step to freedom.  So, let’s take a look at the most common traps people fall into.

10 Very Common Stupid Tricks That Wreck A Good Life

I’d bet we’ve all witnessed at least some of these stupid tricks.  Unfortunately, they plague many people and are incredibly common.  Read over the list and let me know which one you think is the worst or most prevalent.

1.  Performing the starring role in a never-ending drama

It seems that some people want the days of their lives to mirror a soap opera.  They constantly behave badly and then wonder why their lives are so freaking crazy.  It is almost as if they are addicted to chaos!  These folks usually fail to see that they are their own worst enemy!  Do you know someone that is the big star in their own perpetual drama?

2.  Jumping through hoops without accomplishing anything

Who do you know that lives life like a hamster spinning in a wheel?  These people run and run, but never get anywhere.  In addition, they probably think they have little to no control over their lives.  They are stuck in the Twilight Zone where every day is just like the next.  They continually jump through hoops for everyone else, but never realize their own dreams.  I assure you this is only an illusion, but how do we convince them?

3.  Parroting the negativity heard in the media and from others

The voices of negativity are constantly lobbing grenades of gloom into our laps.  Many people become echo chambers that repeat and amplify this barrage until they are deaf to anything else.  Then their minds freeze up in fear, doubt and panic.  These people let themselves be toyed with like a puppet!  We all need to turn off the talking heads and feed our minds positive, encouraging vitamins of hope to regain a good life!

4.  Disappearing when they hear the words volunteer or charity

Why are people so afraid of giving away their time and money?  I know there are a lot of scams, but are we really going to let that squelch every attempt at good?  So what if once in a blue moon we give a nickel to someone that wastes it!  Life goes on!  Get over it!  The most significant thing we can do with our limited days on this earth is make someone else feel safe, comfortable and cared for.

5.  Trying to walk a high-wire without a net in their personal finances

The recession we just experienced was a gift.  It was a warning shot across the bow giving people the opportunity to turn from their destructive financial path.  Spending beyond their means, piling up mountains of debt and failing to save a penny for a rainy day will be the demise of many.  Our economy reflects our collective financial condition.  Hopefully, the warning we got will motivate people to get their house in order so we can prosper as a country!

6.  Rolling over and quitting because they made a few mistakes

Making a bad mistake can be painful.  I’ll admit it can feel like someone scarred you with a white-hot branding iron on your backside.  The memory of such an event leaves many thinking that the best thing they can do is to curl up into the fetal position and quit.  Of course, this means they’ll miss out on even the slightest chance that life might throw them a bone just when they need it most!

7.  Swinging from one relationship to the next to avoid commitment

It isn’t always easy to let yourself be loved.  A true partner will challenge you to grow and better yourself.  They will force a person to relinquish some of the selfishness we all cling to for dear life.  Jumping to another relationship won’t solve the problem.  One day you have to deal with the person staring back at you in the mirror.  This is the only way I know to ultimately find the kind of love we all long for.

8.  Playing opossum on the couch to evade all forms of exercise

There is nothing that will steal the joy out of a person’s life quicker than health problems.  However, you don’t have to look far to find a person taking a very short-sighted approach when it comes to exercise and eating right.  Neither of these is all that hard, expensive or time-consuming.  They just take a little discipline and ingenuity.  I don’t understand why people don’t get up and get active!  It is the single best thing we can do for ourselves!

9.  Throwing daggers of blame while blindfolded at anyone in range

Some people will throw blame at just about anybody but themselves.  It is always the other person’s fault that their relationships suck, their career is at a dead-end and the collection agent knows their whole family by first name.  Accepting responsibility for our lives and making a conscious decision to do everything we can to make this one life we have worth living is the only solution to our dilemma.  When will people learn?

10.  Flipping out when it is suggested they should learn something new

I never cease to be amazed at how strongly people resist and fear change.  They will do everything within their power to avoid, divert and even sabotage anything that is going to make them have to learn something new or change in anyway.  Change is a necessary and healthy part of life.  Our routines are not pets!  People need to learn to grow!  It doesn’t hurt as much as they think!

Retraining to Quit These Stupid Tricks

We are not circus animals!  We have a choice in our behavior.  All we have to do is decide to retrain ourselves.  How do we get people to quit these self-destructive tricks?

Well, you’ll find a lot of great advice by continuing to read Pick The Brain.  In addition, you can find a lot of great information on good habits and smart living on my blog.  Hope to hear from you soon!

Jeff Nickles is a guest blogger for PickTheBrain. He writes about living life to the fullest at MySuperChargedLife.com.

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