All smokers are aware that smoking is injurious to health. Yet, many continue to smoke even when they know that this habit actually kills. Is that not enough a reason to quit smoking? Of course, there are many, many other reasons – but this one is the most critical, i.e. your life. Smoking is such an irony – you pay money to buy yourself a slow and extremely painful (not to mention expensive) death.

Some Tips How To Quit Smoking –

1. Publicise your decision to quit smoking

Let your friends and family know your decision to quit smoking. Get practical support, delegating to a person close to you the difficult task of reminding you of your target and benefits in your health whenever you feel a strong desire for a cigarette. Also, very important, ask from friends and family not to smoke in front of you and not to leave cigarettes around you.

2. Set a target date

Set a target date over a period of 2-3 weeks from the time you have taken the decision, which you will begin, the effort to quit smoking. Make sure that this period does not coincide with difficulties and stressful conditions as in this case will be easier for you to be carried away. Try to gradually reduce the quantity of cigarettes you smoke in the coming weeks until the target date.

3. Create a schedule

Set a specific timetable, which will not be very tight or too short in duration. Allow for possible “errors”, estimate the likelihood of serious desire for smoking and do not be disappointed if you do not accomplish it in the first three days. Keep trying. Few are those who succeed with their first try.

4. Start Easy

Record under what conditions you more often smoke (boredom, anxiety, companionship, loneliness, television, cards, coffee, etc.)

Rate your desire from 0 to 5, with “mechanical smoking” to the “absolutely necessary”.

Locate phases during which you smoke mechanically, without particularly want to, and make an effort to begin to gradually quit smoking into those relatively indifferent phases. This way you will make a good start and also increase your confidence to continue till you mange to quit smoking completely.

5. Avoid your smoking habits and drinks

Avoid the top reasons causing your desire for smoking such as coffee, alcohol, night outs, arguing etc. Try to consume a lot dairy products, fruits and vegetables, as the taste has been shown in surveys that reduce both the desire to smoke and also it affects in a negative way the taste of a cigarette if you cannot fight the temptation.

Also avoid habits that in you mind are combined with smoking such as television, reading magazines or surfing the internet.

6. Keep you self busy

Especially in the early days try to keep your self busy with things you like, try not to leave time to yourself to think how much would you like to smoke. Also, try to divert your irritation in intense activity, for example by making some sports, walking or cycling.

7. Sleep more

Try to sleep more than you usually do. Your body and spirit becomes more exhausted from the effort to stop smoking and needs more rest. Moreover, the hours you sleep are hours that you are not thinking about how you would like a cigarette.

8. Drink more water

Try to drink more water. Water helps in eliminating toxins that have accumulated in your body from smoking more quickly, while reducing your desire to smoke.

9. Visit no-smoking places

Try to spend as many hours of the day in places where smoking is not allowed, such as libraries and museums. If you take a break for coffee sit with your friends in the non-smoking section.

10. Keep your hands busy

Keep your hands busy. It is proven that one of the reasons that people keep smoking is because they have associated smoking with a habit they do with their hands. Keep in your hand everything else than a cigarette; hold a pen, a piece of paper, anything that can trick your self, which is used to make the mechanical movements of smoking.

11. Avoid the smoking ‘after food temptation’

Most people tend to smoke immediately after food. Stand up immediately from the table you just eat go brush your teeth or go for a walk, try not to get into the temptation of smoking.

12. Don’t fall into the “one cigarette trap”

Try to resist the temptation to “one” cigarette. It is for sure that once you smoke one cigarette you will ruin your attempts to quit smoking, as other cigarettes will follow.

Even if you do fall in the trap, do not be very strict yourself. Try not to make the same mistake again and always have in your mind that this was a temporary misstep in your attempt to quit smoking for good.

13. Try using nicotine substitutes

If you feel that your lack of nicotine creates irritation, or if in the first few days you did not managed to stop smoking, despite your efforts, try using nicotine substitutes, such as stickers or chewing nicotine gum. This will help you to get rid of the habit of looking for cigarettes and will eventually help you to quit smoking.

14. Try acupuncture

Acupuncture is a natural method of nicotine dependency treatment, painless and safe. With one to five visits it reduces the intensity of symptoms such as psychological pressure, anxiety, depression, tension and the feelings of emptiness caused by the use of a long-term drug like nicotine. Surveys also have shown that acupuncture increases the need for affirmative action, creates vitality and fertility and helps the mind to think clearly and to check its desires.

15. Reward you self for you hard efforts

Reward yourself for each day without a cigarette. A good idea in this direction is to use the money savings from not smoking to buy something or make a trip.

16. Watch you diet

Consider consulting a dietician and follow a nutrition program for the first few months since the majority of smokers gain some extra pounds because they tend to eat more as a replacement action for not smoking.

17. Think positive

Do not you think quitting smoking as a sacrifice in which you lose a pleasure for the general and vague “good health”, but as a short exchange of joy with others, much bigger.

18. Accept your weakness

Reconcile with your weaknesses and do not to dispose yourself because you feel dependent on tobacco. If smoking had nothing positive, no one would smoke. The issue is to gradually be able to put on the scale the negatives of smoking and to let the scale turn in favour of quitting smoking.

19. Smoke consciously

Smoke consciously, that is, as any other activity you do, when you smoke say: “now I will smoke a cigarette.” In this way it will help you slowly disconnect the cigarette from other parallel activities, such as driving, surfing the net or speaking on the telephone. Conscious smoking in the long run helps address the issues with “mechanical smoking.”

20. Quit Smoking - Starting from now

You’ve read the ways to quit smoking and you also have the will to do it, why not start your efforts from now. Set your target date and follow the steps above. Quitting smoking can only do good for you and your health. It’s you choice…

Self Improvement Health, How To Quit Smoking, Quit Smoking, Tips

What are the three keys to self improvement and motivation?

INSPIRATION

Inspiration is critical to staying motivated and improving oneself. If you are not interested in your business, your motivation level will never be high and you will not be able to sustain interest for very long.

Take an honest look at your inspiration level. Are you excited about going to work or is it an obligation? You would be surprised at the number of people who choose a business that looks good on paper, but in reality does not interest them in the least.

These individuals will grow weary and uninterested pretty quickly because they have no inspiration or passion to sustain them during the difficult times they will encounter as a small business owner.

If you do not like your work, then think how you can re-focus your small business to better match your needs. Or consider making a change entirely. Without inspiration, there will not be motivated to even try self improvement.

SETTING GOALS

Short and long-term goal setting is vital for any business owner. If you do not set goals, you would have no definite purpose on which path of self improvement to take.

How could you possibly be motivated if you were unsure about the direction of your company?

Take the time to put your goals in writing. A business plan may sound daunting, but it is really nothing more than goals, strategies, implementation and a budget. Write your own business plan and update it at least annually.

Include “mini-goals” that can be accomplished in a matter of hours, days or weeks as well as the more ambitious “grand-goals” that may take years to complete. Refer to this plan throughout the year.

But can a business plan really help motivate you? Of course. Written goals will make you feel more professional and certainly more connected to your business. It will also free you from having to reinvent your business goals every single day.

NETWORKING

Another key factor in getting and staying motivated is networking with other small business owners. No one person knows all the knowledge.

However, when a number of people begin working together, the challenges will just be there waiting to be conquered.

In fact, the isolation of working alone is of one the most difficult parts of being an entrepreneur. You can never be on your way to self improvement without the help of others. Mutual support is motivating.
Make it easier on yourself by connecting with others either in your community or online. Even when businesses are not related, you will often find common ground and ways to work together.

Many successful entrepreneurs report that finding the right networking group was a turning point in the growth of the business. Working together, a networking group can help its members generate more qualified sales leads and solve problems faster and more efficiently.

Sharing ideas, expertise and experience is also an invaluable aspect of motivation and self improvement. Your own personal team of business owners will help re-energize you when the burdens of running your own business seem too much.

With your networking team to rely on, you can accomplish more in less time and probably have more fun in the process. You will feel motivated to accomplish self improvement when you know you are not alone.

Self Improvement Motivation, Self Improvement

1. Do certain things fewer times

Things that can be done less or things that can be done once instead of twice are those things that will help us save a lot of time. Clean your house once every ten days instead of every 7 days – you can do that, it’s normal and the house won’t get dirty in those three extra days.

Make a work report every six week not every four weeks if possible.

Keep meetings to inform yourself on ongoing projects twice a month not every week. And the list of things that can be done fewer times can go on forever.

2. Compete with yourself!

Watch the clock and settle to finish an activity by a certain hour. Focus, get rod of anything that could distract you and work more efficiently.

3. Ask more out of 15 minutes.

Can you find 15 minutes a day that you could use more efficiently? Is there lost time in your activities? Or maybe a less important activity you can give up on? If you manage to save 15 minutes every day, you will win in fact 91 hours every year!

4. Do a list of little activities that don’t take you more than a couple of minutes.

Of course, we usually want to deal with the important problems first. But when we feel tired, stressed, in a bad mood, we find it hard to concentrate and we lose our time forcing ourselves. A list of simple activities will help you finalize something and push up your productivity. And obviously it is always better to know you did something, even is it is small, than to realize you haven’t even started anything.

5. Work on a certain project over a certain period of time.

Rather than to try and finalize an activity at once, it is better to tell yourself: “ I will work on this for 15 minutes and see how much I can get done during this interval”. Focus and try to do all you can during those 15 minutes. This is an excellent advice to solve problems or projects you avoided lately.

Self Improvement Time Saving Tips, Tips

Sometimes, when all our doubts, fears and insecurities wrap ourselves up, we always come up with the idea of “I wish I was somebody else.”  More often than not, we think and believe that someone or rather, most people are better than us.- when in reality, the fact is, most people are more scared than us.

The Truth

You spot a totally eye-catching girl sitting by herself at a party, casually sipping on a glass of Asti Spumanti. You think to yourself, “she looks so perfectly calm and confident.” But if you could read thru her transparent mind, you would see a bunch of clouds of thoughts and you might just be amazed that she’s thinking “are people talking about why I am seated here alone?… Why don’t guys find me attractive? …I don’t like my ankles, they look too skinny… I wish I was as intelligent as my best friend.”

We look at a young business entrepreneur and say “Wooh… what else could he ask for?” He stares at himself at the mirror and murmur to himself, “I hate my big eyes… I wonder why my friends won’t talk to me… I hope mom and dad would still work things out.”

Isn’t it funny? We look at other people, envy them for looking so outrageously perfect and wish we could trade places with them, while they look at us and thinks of the same thing. We are insecure of other people who themselves are insecure of us. We suffer from low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and lose hope in self improvement because we are enveloped in quiet desperation.

Sometimes, you notice that you have an irritating habit like biting off your finger nails, having a foul mouth, and you – of all people, is the last to know.

I have a friend who never gets tired of talking. And in most conversations, she is the only one who seems to be interested in the things she has to say. So all of our other friends tend to avoid the circles whenever she’s  around, and she doesn’t notices how badly she became socially handicapped – gradually affecting the people in her environment.

The Keys

One key to self improvement is to LISTEN and TALK to a trusted friend. Find someone who you find comfort in opening up with even the most gentle topics you want to discuss. Ask questions like “do you think I am ill-mannered?”,  “Do I always sound so argumentative?”,  “Do I talk too loud?”,  “Does my breath smell?”,  “Do I ever bore you when were together?”.  In this way, the other person will obviously know that you are interested in the process of self improvement. Lend her your ears for comments and criticisms and don’t give her answers like “Don’t exaggerate! That’s just the way I am!” Open up your mind and heart as well. And in return, you may want to help your friend with constructive criticism that will also help her improve her self.

Love Yourself

One of Whitney Houston’s songs says “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all”. True enough. In order to love others, you must love yourself too. Remember, you cannot give what you do not have.

Before telling other people some ways on how to improve themselves, let them see that you yourself is a representation and a product of self improvement. Self improvement makes us better people, we then inspire other people, and then the rest of the world will follow.

Stop thinking of yourselves as second-rate beings. Forget the repetitive thought of “If only I was richer… if only I was thinner” and so on.  Accepting your true self is the first step to self improvement. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others only to find out at the end that we’ve got  10 more reasons to envy them.

Nobody Perfect

We all have our insecurities. Nobody is perfect. We always wish we had better things, better features, better body parts, etc. But life need not to be perfect for people to be happy about themselves. Self improvement and loving yourself is not a matter of shouting to the whole world that you are perfect and you are the best. It’s the virtue of acceptance and contentment. When we begin to improve ourselves, we then begin to feel contented and happy.

Self Improvement Self Improvement Advice