In order to quit smoking, you have to crave or desire to quit. You have to want to quit. You probably want to quit, at least some part of you does, or you wouldn't be reading this article.

In order to quit smoking, you have to decide to quit. Since you haven't quit smoking, it simply means that you have not decided to quit . . . yet. So what you need is to feel motivated to make a 'decision' to quit smoking.

Motivation, we all need it. I have never known anyone to do anything without motivation. If you think about it, people don't get out of bed or get dressed without feeling motivated. They do not eat or wash themselves without first feeling motivated to do so.

The source of each of our motivations is a belief. Think about it, if you did not believe that you could get hurt if you walked in front of moving traffic, you would not feel motivated to be careful. If you did not believe that the gnawing sensation in your stomach meant that you were hungry, you would not feel motivated to eat.

When it comes to giving up the smoking habit, people need to feel a great deal of motivation to make the decision to quit. Motivation is based on the ideas that we believe. So you will need to figure out what ideas will motivate you (when you start to believe them). Because when you feel powerfully motivated, you will quit smoking.

Thanks to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and hypnosis for motivation, it's a lot easier to learn how to believe these new ideas than you probably think it is. However, you do not believe the ideas that will motivate you to quit smoking at this point, or you would have already broken the smoking addiction.

Yeah, yeah, I can hear you thinking right now, you've heard all of the scare tactics about smoking, and they haven't motivated you to quit. Well, maybe you don't believe them. Or maybe you do believe them, but they are not what you, as an individual, need to believe to feel motivated to stop smoking.

For the purpose of this discussion, we need to define a few words.

Doubt: Uncertain/distrustful/dubious - 'maybe it's this way, and maybe it isn't.'

Belief: Trust/faith/tenet - A state of mind devoid of all doubt. In other words, belief means, "this is the way that it is."

Highly valued criteria: What is most important to you, as an individual.

When you totally believe that if you continue to smoke, your highly valued criteria is in jeopardy, you will feel the motivation that you require to stop smoking. We call this is a negative motivator, because it's a belief that motivates you by giving you bad feelings. Negative motivators are very powerful.

When you believe that if you do quit, your highly valued criteria will become enhanced, you will also feel the motivation that you require to quit smoking. This is a positive motivator, because it motivates you by promising good feelings if you stop smoking.

The first task is for you to figure out what your most highly valued criteria is. In other words, what are the most important things in your life? Here is a hint for you: Your most highly valued criteria are usually intangibles. For example: Money would not be highly valued criteria, but the freedom, fun, or security that money can provide would be. Write your list of highly valued criteria down on a piece of paper.

Next you need to figure out what you need to believe to feel motivated to quit. Here is the good news, sort of: Logic has nothing to do with belief. Things don't have to be logical for you to believe them. As a matter of fact, they rarely are. So forget logic!

Just figure out what you need to believe to feel motivated to quit smoking no matter how ridiculous it may sound. When you figure this out, you may find that you already have a belief that contradicts this new idea. That's okay. We can deal with that if it's ecological.

The format for the negative motivator beliefs will be: "I believe that if I continue to smoke, something bad will happen to my most highly valued criteria."

As you write down the list of negative motivator ideas that you will need to believe to feel motivated, make sure that you've stated them in the positive. In other words, always state what you want or what will happen. Never state what you don't want or what won't happen. Eliminate the "not" word from the beliefs.

In this example we will say that your children's welfare is your most highly valued criteria.

Wrong: "I believe that if I continue to smoke, I won't be doing my kids health any good."

Correct: "I believe that if I continue to smoke, my secondhand smoke will ruin my children's health."

Now take the list of your highly valued criteria, and create a list of positive motivators. "I believe that if I quit smoking: (something very important will be enhanced)."

Again, write down the new ideas that you will need to believe. Make sure that you've stated them in the positive. In other words, always state what you want, never what you don't want. Eliminate the "not" word from the beliefs.

Wrong: "I believe that if I stop smoking, I won't harm my kids health."

Correct: "I believe that if I quit smoking, my children will be healthier because I'll eliminate their exposure to the dangers of my second hand smoke."

The next step is to modify the computer codes in your brain to make yourself actually believe these motivational ideas. Now for a shocker: Belief has nothing to do with logic or reality. But it does have everything to do with your perception of reality. In other words, it has a lot to do with the way that we see things.

Our belief systems are based in our unconscious mind. The unconscious is like a computer. Computers don't reason. The input controls the output. To demonstrate, I want you to think of anything that you already believe without the slightest bit of doubt. Make it a belief that makes you feel good.

For instance, it's easy for most people to believe that they love their children. If that is true for you, make a mental image that makes you feel that love.

I'm going to ask some questions, and there aren't any right or wrong answers. Is your mental image:

A moving picture, or a still?
Is it in color, or in black and white?
Is it close or far?
Is it focused or fuzzy?
Is it normally bright, overly bright, or dim?
Is there a border on it?
Is it borderless?
Is it a panorama?

Whatever your answers are, write them down. These are the computer codes that your unconscious uses to indicate your feelings of belief. In this case they are the codes for positive belief because you've chosen a belief that gives you a good feeling. You have just calibrated your positive belief.

All positive belief pictures are bright and focused. If yours aren't, you probably don't really have total belief. You probably have an element of doubt. So find another belief from which to calibrate.

If you think of something that you doubt, and you make a mental image of it, one or more of these computer codes will probably be different. Similarly, if you have a belief that gives you a bad feeling, (a negative belief): one or more of those codes will be different.

In NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) we call these computer codes submodalities. In this case they are called visual submodalities.

Now you will want to calibrate a negative belief. So repeat the same exact process, but do so using an idea that you already believe, that makes you feel bad.

Once you have calibrated your positive and your negative beliefs, it's a simple matter to manipulate what you believe so you can motivate yourself to decide to quit.

So, to summarize, using the above example: "I believe that if I continue to smoke, my secondhand smoke will ruin my children's health."

1. Sense how motivated you feel to quit smoking.

2. Make a mental image that illustrated the above belief.

3. Adjust the computer codes (visual submodalities) of the image to match the submodalities from your calibrated negative belief.

4. If you are right handed, move your eyeballs (and your image) up to your left and hold it there for five seconds. If you are left handed, to the opposite. This will help you to quickly memorize the belief.

5. Now sense how motivated you feel to quit smoking. Do you feel more motivated? Less motivated? Or the same?

Using this technique you can make yourself believe almost anything by making a picture in your mind that illustrates your new idea and then adjusting your mental image to match your calibrated belief pictures.

And if you have a belief that is holding you back, you can use the same technique to change that belief to doubt by changing one or two of the submodalities and memorizing it that way.

Now that you can motivate yourself to decide to quit, you will quit smoking. A decision to quit means: I'm quitting no matter how much it hurts. If you are like most people, you won't want it to "hurt", and it doesn't have to. There are several hypnotic techniques that can greatly reduce, or even completely eliminate the discomforts of withdrawal from the cigarette addiction.

My programs utilize a combination of Ericksonian Hypnosis, NLP, and Video Hypnosis to totally eliminate the discomforts usually suffered while going through withdrawal. 90% of the smoking addiction is mental, and only 10% is a physical addiction. My programs deal with the 90% part of the addiction and clients tell me that they are amazed how easy it was to quit.

Alan B. Densky, CH is the developer of the Neuro-VISION® Video Hypnosis Technology, which was awarded a US Patent because of its uniqueness and effectiveness. He also offers a unique and effective exercise motivation Hypnosis & NLP program, along with a broad variety of other popular hypnotherapy titles.