Setting Yourself Up for Success With Quitting Smoking

Quitting smoking is tough, so you have to be tougher! You need to think about everything that leads up to lighting up and work your life around it. Analyze the reasons and environments that are most likely to see you with a cigarette in your mouth and formulate your plan to quit around them. The following article outlines some of the major influences on smoking which may help you quit the nasty habit for good.
Avoid caffeine and alcohol. Both these substances lead you toward lighting up and you need to work on control of them in order to control smoking. That first cup of coffee in the morning goes hand in hand with a cigarette so change up your caffeine routine and try juice instead, at least until you have a grip on smoking. Alcohol should be cut out of your life completely until you are 100% smoke free. Not only does it cause you to want to smoke like coffee does, but it impairs your judgement as well. You are very likely to give in to the urge to smoke after a few drinks.
Divert the stress in your life somehow. Life is always throwing curve balls that stress you out and have you running for one vice or another. Keep away from negative people that instigate such stress or places where you are prone to being under pressure. Remember that quitting cigarettes is for your health and for the rest of your life so, if you have to take a few days off from work or neglect social obligations so be it. 
Focus on other goals. If you have been meaning to clean out the garage or paint your bedroom now is the time to undertake those tasks. Make a bucket list specifically to mark the end of your relationship with nicotine and use the difficult initial quitting time to take care of everything on the list. Fix your old bicycle so you can start riding again, clean out your closets, remodel the bathroom or write that novel that's been floating around in your head. 
Stop being so impatient. Often times when we want something and cannot immediately have it we revert to something else that fills the need instantly. Cigarettes can be a huge filler for not being able to have something else you want and nearly every smoker does it. If you can retrain yourself to have more patience you thus have more control which enables you to avoid reaching for a smoke when your appointment or bus is late.
Stay away from old smoking grounds. Your favorite pub, a picnic bench outside of your place of employment or even your own porch with a cup of coffee, whatever the locations where you are most likely to light up are you need to avoid. Even if all of your friends still smoke and frequent these places the only way you will be able to quit is by being temporarily exiled from them. It may seem like punishment at the time, but once you are free from smoking you will look back and see the benefits.
Avoidance of the things listed above can give you the advantages you need to successfully quit smoking. For most people, going cold turkey does not work because so many factors influence smoking. Whatever supports your smoking habit or causes you to light up quicker or more often should be avoided. There is really no other way to approach quitting. Hopefully the advice from this article combined with your own personal motivations will turn you into the nonsmoker you have always wanted to be.