Quitting smoking is all about mindset. Studies show that 75% of smokers quit without medication or nicotine replacements. You can quit smoking on your own if you decide to do so. Ready to quit? Follow these tips for a swift transition:

1. **Goal: Positive and Present**
Set a date and time to stop smoking. Frame your goal in positive, present terms, like “I am stopping my addiction to cigarettes.” Continue smoking as usual until then, and don’t try to cut down beforehand; it’ll only make cigarettes seem more valuable.

2. **Gain: Reclaiming Freedom**
Understand that quitting isn’t about giving something up. The belief that you’re “sacrificing” something assumes cigarettes help you, but they don’t. They don’t provide real pleasure or support. The only goal of cigarettes, especially the nicotine within, is to keep you addicted. Quitting means regaining your freedom, dignity, a healthier future, and financial stability. Prepare to be a happy non-smoker from the moment you extinguish your last cigarette.

3. **Withdrawal: Pain-Free and Quick**
Nicotine withdrawal isn’t miserable. Once you stop smoking, your body will continue to detox from nicotine for a few days. The physical withdrawal is straightforward, painless, and quick. As smokers, you’re used to feeling withdrawal symptoms minutes before lighting the next cigarette. As non-smokers, you’ll be free from this forever.

4. **Habits: Enjoying the Moment Without Choking**
As smokers, you have “cigarette habits,” like smoking with coffee or during breaks. Continue to drink your coffee and take breaks. The moment you stop smoking, think, “How wonderful! I can enjoy this moment without choking myself.”

5. **Social Events: Enjoy Without Envying Smokers**
Go out, have fun at pubs, weddings, and parties without envying smokers. Pity them. They’re likely envious of you because they wish to be like you: free from cigarette bondage. Smokers are socially disconnected as they need to find places to smoke without disturbing others. Every smoker regrets starting and wouldn’t want their kids to start. Remember, you’re not the deprived one; the unfortunate smokers are. If offered a cigarette after quitting, simply say, “No thanks, I’m not a smoker.”

6. **No More Excuses: The Time is Now**
Don’t let excuses delay your plan to quit smoking. There’s never an “ideal time,” so the best time is now. When you quit, don’t avoid thinking about smoking. It’s not what you think about, but how you think about it that matters. If you think, “I want a cigarette, but I can’t have one,” you’ll likely feel miserable. Instead, think, “I’m so glad I don’t need or want to smoke anymore. It’s great being a non-smoker,” and you’ll remain happy even while thinking about smoking.

7. **One Cigarette: Falling Back into the Nicotine Trap**
Stop the illusions. Don’t think that you’re now in control and smoking “just one cigarette” won’t hurt. It’s a significant mistake many ex-smokers make. Smoking even one cigarette means that nicotine molecules are back in your brain, and falling back into the nicotine trap is only a matter of time. No reason in the world justifies that cigarette, not a hard moment, work pressure, or a breakup. Never think in terms of one cigarette, but rather a dirty, lifelong chain of cigarettes.

8. **Replacements: Prolonging the Addiction**
Smoking a cigarette isn’t a positive act, so there’s no need to replace it with something else, but rather to eradicate it from your life. Replacements, especially those containing nicotine, are particularly useless as they just maintain the addiction. It’s like a heroin addict who smokes the drug from silver paper switching to injections.

9. **The Feeling of Freedom: Irreplaceable**
A non-smoker doesn’t need cigarettes. They don’t worry about having cigarettes or keeping them for emergencies. They’re simply free. Once you extinguish your last cigarette, you join the non-smokers. Don’t doubt this decision. You’ve freed yourself from cigarette slavery forever. Enjoy this freedom and become addicted to it; it’s irreplaceable.

10. **Turning Off ‘Auto-Pilot’: Engage Critical Thinking**
As smokers, you operate on autopilot, without choice. The nicotine trap dominates you, and the habits and rituals around cigarettes bind your life. After quitting, you might occasionally feel the urge to smoke, just like others crave chocolate or a new dress. In such moments, your “red light” should activate your critical thinking, allowing you to choose whether to return to smoking, without ever being able to stop again. The answer, of course, is negative. If you ever ask yourself “why?” remember that you didn’t enjoy being a smoker, which is why you decided to quit in the first place. Turn these moments from frustrating to happy ones, where you congratulate yourself for being a free, self-confident person in control of your life, quality, and health.

11. **Solemn Promise: No More Taking a Puff**
When you part from your last cigarette, solemnly swear never to take another puff of a cigarette or nicotine in any form, regardless of future highs or lows. You know you’re making the right decision, so don’t doubt it or question it.

The author is a former smoker.