How Not To Quit Smoking The Concept Of The imaginary Motivation

Title: 
How Not To Quit Smoking - The Concept Of The 'imaginary Motivation'

Word Count:
305

Summary:
I hate smoking, so why do I still smoke?

Now it occurs to me that I generally motivate myself to quit in the following manner:

(i) Make a demand to myself to quit.
(ii) Fail to quit.
(iii) Punish myself for continuing to smoke by nagging myself about it (I call it �worry�).
(iv) Make an offer to myself � I will stop the nagging, but only as a reward for quitting smoking.
(v) Fail to quit again.
(vi) Go back to Step (i) and repeat�.

It�s been an unconscious proce...


Keywords:
smoking, quit, motivation, self-discipline, addiction


Article Body:
I hate smoking, so why do I still smoke?

Now it occurs to me that I generally motivate myself to quit in the following manner:

(i) Make a demand to myself to quit.
(ii) Fail to quit.
(iii) Punish myself for continuing to smoke by nagging myself about it (I call it �worry�).
(iv) Make an offer to myself � I will stop the nagging, but only as a reward for quitting smoking.
(v) Fail to quit again.
(vi) Go back to Step (i) and repeat�.

It�s been an unconscious process up until recently, because I�ve been nagging myself for so long that it�s become second nature to me. My operative motivation, then, for quitting smoking is to relieve myself from the nagging that I impose upon myself. It�s actually designed to work like this:

1. Punish myself for continuing to smoke by nagging myself about it.
2. Make an offer to stop the nagging as a reward for quitting smoking.
3. Quit smoking in order to collect the reward.
4. Bestow the reward (stop nagging at myself).

But hey, since I�m offering myself only the cessation of something (nagging) that I don�t have to do in the first place, why not just skip Step 3 and go directly to Step 4? And that�s always what ends up happening after a few go-rounds of (i) through (vi).

The cessation of self-imposed nagging is what�s called an �imaginary motivation�. It�s a game I can�t win, and deep down inside I know it. And when an imaginary motivation fails to produce real results, I judge and blame myself for failing to be motivated by it, thus starting the whole cycle all over again.

Roses are red
Violates are blue
I�m schizophrenic�

And so am I

There�s GOT to be a better way�