Quit Smoking for Prosperity’s Sake!

Smoking is the dumbest thing ever!

You know it.

I know it.

Smokers know it.

Everyone knows it!

But, for various reasons, lots of people still smoke.

If you’re a smoker or trying to help a smoker kick that habit, I’m hoping this article will help you.

For decades, society has gotten wise to the fact that lighting a cigarette, putting the dumb thing into your mouth, and inhaling all the garbage that cigarette makers have put there (including nicotine and other substances that get you hooked on the habit), costs you personally in lots of different ways, including financially, besides seriously jeopardizing your health. Not to mention all the social side effects, especially the stigma of being a smoker, smelling like a smoker, having a smoker’s cough, and all the other baggage that comes with being a smoker.

The habit of smoking is correlated with lots of negative outcomes. It’s associated with poverty, helplessness, poor health, and overall poor decision making.

If you’re a smoker reading this, I’m guessing that you’re interested in trying (possibly for the umpteenth time) to rid yourself of the habit. You want to become a non-smoker. You already know most of the reasons why quitting smoking will make your life 1000 times better, but I’m going to review just a few of the most important.

Smoking Damages Your Health

As the evidence has mounted over the last few decades since smoking became a thing, lawmakers have begun requiring cigarette makers to state that their products absolutely do cause cancer.

There is no question about the damaging effects smoking has on your health. Each cigarette (including your next one and the one after that) you smoke is killing you. The sooner (as in, like right now!) you quit smoking, the more immediately you can stop the damage and start the healing.

Smoking Inhibits Your Financial Prosperity

This website is all about prospering, financially as well as in regards to health, relationships, and overall happiness. Smoking makes you less productive, as you have to interrupt your day on a consistent basis to step outside with your head lowered, embarrassed about the crutch you have to lean on hour after hour, day after day. Smoking destroys clothing, automobiles, the very house you live in.

According to data provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, smoking a pack of cigarettes per day costs a smoker $1,887.05 per year. For most people, that’s more than a month’s mortgage payment (or rent payment) for a pretty nice house in most areas. Smoking 2 packs per day will cost you as much as two mortgage or payments.

If the health and quality of livings costs are not sufficient motivation to quit, the direct financial cost of smoking, not counting medical bills and higher insurance premiums, is simply too high to afford continuing so smoke.

If you’d like to take a quick look at what smoking has cost you already, or estimate what it will cost you if you don’t decide to quit now, you might try out the How Much is Tobacco Costing You tool on WayToQuit.org. The online tool allows you to enter information about how much you smoke, how long you’ve smoked, and other information to give you an idea of how much smoking has been or will continue to affect you financially.

Looking at these numbers can be an eye-opening influence to cause you to really decide to quit the habit.

How to Quit Smoking

Fortunately for smokers, in most areas of the United States, there are resources available to help you stop smoking…permanently, based upon your willingness.

I’m going to share a few of the various resources that are available to help people like you stop smoking, which will help you turn the corner with regard to improving your health, relationships, and financial well-being.

Before I get to those resources, I’m going to point out what most experts believe are the essential components of a successful effort to stop smoking by an individual. Because each individual is unique in their reasons for smoking, the extent of their addictions, and their motivations to quit, effectively quitting smoking involves different things for different people. However, the following three components are typical of success stories for people who have stopped:

1. counseling from a qualified professional, who helps a smoker learn to develop problem-solving skills that can be used to overcome obstacles and prevent relapse
2. support from family members and friends
3. often there are nicotine replacement medications or other medical intervention used

Nicotine Anonymous

Nicotine Anonymous is a nationwide organization that offers local support groups to help people stop smoking. The Nicotine Anonymous (similar to several of the other programs listed below) is modeled after the popular Alcoholics Anonymous group programs that use a 12-step program to beat addictive behavior.

Nicotine Anonymous offers face-to-face meeting groups, phone meetings, internet meetings, and facilitates other methods of communication and support for those trying to kick the habit. Use the Nicotine Anonymous Find a Meeting page to locate a support group that works for you.

Christian Faith-Based Stop Smoking Workshops

For many people, a faith-based local support program is the best solution to stop smoking. In line with the mission of most Christian churches to help people improve their lives through applying Biblical principles to life choices, there are local Catholic, Protestant, non-denominational and other Christian church groups who offer free or very affordable programs to help you move forward towards freedom from tobacco and greater independence.

I tried to find stop smoking workshops using Google searches that are maps related, such as “stop smoking workshop near me”, but it looks like Google hasn’t matched those searches up with local churches that offer those workshops. This is most likely because local churches don’t often know how to or are not interested in marketing their programs online. To find a stop smoking workshop offered by your local Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, non-denominational, or other Christian church, I’d suggest simply finding some of the churches closest to you and calling them to ask if they have a stop smoking group or if they know of one that exists at another local church. It shouldn’t take but a couple phone calls to get connected with a group that you can feel comfortable joining.

Addiction Recovery Groups at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Many local churches have resources to help their adherents and others in the community quit smoking. The church to which I belong, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or LDS Church), holds workshops led by full-time missionaries and others who spend their time as volunteers helping people quit the habit. In my religion, being free from addictive habits like smoking is highly encouraged, and is even required for meeting worthiness standards to be in the best standing in the church. That motivation alone is enough for many members to stop smoking, or to never experiment with it in the first place.

Based upon where you live, other churches in your area likely provide similar services to help you quit. These groups are held in the church’s addiction recovery efforts, which also help people overcome other addictions such as pornography, drugs, and alcohol, and similar addictive behaviors.

If you’re interested in finding a local LDS church group, you can go to their Addiction Recovery Meeting Finder, enter your zip code, and search for what’s available close to you.

The American Lung Association and Other Organizations

There are also local courses and workshops operated by the American Lung Association and others concerned with helping people avoid lung cancer and the other ailments that come with smoking.

The American Lung Association has a Freedom from Smoking course that costs $99.95 for an individual. Their course can be operated in a group for more support, which brings the cost per participant down lower.

Home Study Course to Quit Smoking

If for some reason you prefer to not be involved with a support group to quit smoking, there are “home study courses” available that have been effective for many former smokers.

I will share below a couple smoking cessation programs I know of that you can use from home on your own.

Mike Avery’s Quit Smoking Magic Cessation Program

The Quit Smoking Magic program is an affiliate of Prosperopedia.com.

Mike Avery, the creator of the program, is a chain smoker. He’s used the program he developed to help people he knows stop smoking, then decided to turn the program into something commercially available. He sells his program for $37.

Mike’s Quit Smoking Magic program comes with a 100% money back guarantee, so it may be worth trying it out if you think that an independent study program is best for your circumstances.

Joan Chionilos’ Smoking Hypnotherapy Program

Another method you can use to stop smoking involves hypnosis. Joan Chionilos’ smoking hynotherapy program. Her program is called Smoke Free in One Hour. If you feel like you’re ready to stop smoking right now and are willing to spend $27 to give it a shot, this program could be your cure for smoking.

Other Resources to Quit Smoking

Federal, state, and local governments are interested in reducing smoking among the population in their respective jurisdictions for obvious reasons. They have created lots of online resources for you to use to help you in your journey towards freedom from cigarettes.

Here are some of the most useful resources I know of:

• Smokefree.gov – This website was created by the National Cancer Institute, a division of the US National Institute of Health. Smokefree.gov has a variety of educational resources about quitting smoking. Their most useful resources are specific Quit Plans for people in various population segments, including military veterans, women, teens, Spanish speakers, and people who are over the age of 60.
• Way to Quit – This is a program based in Utah (sponsored by the State of Utah) that provides free resources for both those who live in the state and others who don’t. Other states have programs similar to this one, but I’ve been impressed with all that this one has to offer.

Whatever Your Preference: Quit Smoking to Enjoy Prosperity

Whatever your reason for starting the habit of smoking, now is the time to stop. Not tomorrow. Not when you finish your next pack of cigarettes or hit some other milestone.

Now!

I hope you find these resources beneficial, and I wish you the best in your journey to stop smoking.

Good luck!