Do I Have Enough Willpower to Quit?
Feelings of doubt, uncertainty and a lack of willpower are common for many smokers when they think about quitting.
Maybe you feel you simply don’t have enough willpower to quit smoking. But did you know you can develop your willpower?
If you feel unsure about quitting, a great way to develop your mental strength is to focus on your own reasons for wanting to quit.
In My Quit Plan, you’ll find some handy tools that can help you decide on your main reasons for quitting. Check out My Quit Plan
Think of Your Willpower as a Muscle
Like lifting a dumbbell to strengthen your arm muscles, you can train your willpower muscle to increase its strength.
Exercising and refining your willpower strategies – as well as learning new ones – can also help to strengthen your willpower muscle.
Can I over-work my willpower muscle?
Just like real muscles, your willpower can experience fatigue. This is why using willpower exercises repeatedly to deal with tempting situations, such as people offering you a cigarette, may lead to a smoking slip-up.
It’s a good idea to bear this in mind and have a plan for managing these situations or if you feel your willpower fading.
Check out our Tricks to Keep on Track with your quit smoking attempt.
Practice Your Willpower Strategies
A great tactic is to start exercising your willpower before you begin your quit smoking attempt. This way, you’ll be better prepared to handle tricky situations when you stop smoking.
This can be as simple as taking a walk every morning or limiting yourself to one sweet treat per week. By practicing these small acts of self-control, you’ll notice they become easier over time. You’ll then be ready to apply these techniques when you need to resist the urge to smoke.
It helps to develop a strong willpower muscle from the very start of your quit attempt, as this is when nicotine cravings are likely to be most frequent and urgent.
Start to Develop Your Willpower
A common belief among smokers is that you either have willpower or you don't.
However, willpower is often linked to motivation – and the great thing about motivation is that you have the power to change it! If you have low levels of willpower or motivation now, it doesn’t mean they’ll stay low.
The trick is to make a start on developing your willpower. Here are some strategies that might help you develop enough willpower to start your quit attempt and stay quit for good:
1. Write down or think about your reasons for wanting to quit smoking – what is it about your situation that makes it important to quit?
Remember Why You’re Quitting
2. Think carefully about any thoughts that may be holding you back from starting a quit attempt or getting back on track after a smoking slip-up.
Having Doubts?
3. Ease into your quit smoking attempt using pre-quit nicotine patches.
Nicotine Patches
4. Ease into your quit smoking attempt using a ‘cut down to quit’ method
Cut Down to Quit
5. Use your past experiences to help you quit smoking for good.
Learn From Previous Attempts