You’ve seen the tarred lungs, blood clots, and other diseased body parts on cigarette cartons. And you’re aware of the harms of smoking: higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer... You know that smoking is bad, full stop.

You do know that you should quit, and you want to quit. Maybe you just don’t know when. Maybe when your wife is pregnant. Maybe when you hit 40.

That’s good! Having these thoughts is the first step to becoming smoke-free. The next step would be to make your motivations more “real” and concrete.

Ready? Grab a pen and paper, and let’s go!

Related: Benefits of Quitting

What Motivates You to Quit?

Take some time to write down what you’re missing out on when you smoke, and what could motivate you to quit. Think through different categories like family, friends, health, money, and everyday life.

Family and Friends

Frequent smoke breaks could be causing you to miss out on moments with your loved ones. Or maybe your friends and family have been encouraging you to quit, and you feel inspired by their support.

Related: Help Someone Quit Smoking

Health

Maybe you don’t like feeling breathless after climbing one flight of stairs, or you no longer want to depend on cigarettes to feel good. Here’s the good news: quitting has major and immediate positive impact on your health, such as improving your breathing and mood!

Related: Healthier, Happier, Richer: This is You, Smoke-Free

Money

Perhaps you're trying to save up for a BTO flat or a car (and that steep COE), and you've just noticed that cigarettes cost a bomb.

You know you'll be saving so much more if you quit. For example, if you smoke one pack per day, you could potentially be saving $100* each week and over $5,000* each year by quitting!

Within half a year of quitting, you'll save enough money to treat yourself to something nice, like a trip to Korea (to catch those good-looking stars) or a shiny new smartphone.

*The pricing of cigarettes is accurate at the time of publishing this article.

Everyday Life

Did you know that cigarettes could dull your taste buds? Perhaps you find that you don’t enjoy food as much as before: your friend brings you to the famous char kway teow stall he’s always raving about and you find the dish bland.

Another small motivation: there’ll no longer be a need to cover the stale cigarette odour with deodorant and mints. And no more smell that lingers and clings onto your clothes and furniture!

Related: Weigh to Go! Quit Smoking Without Weight Gain

Make a Statement

You’ve jotted down what could motivate you to quit; now, let’s transform those into reasons for quitting, and write them down.

For example, “I quit because I want to save money to start a family”, “I quit because I want my baby to grow up smoke-free”, or “I quit because I want to enjoy life without cigarettes”.

Congrats, you’ve just taken the first concrete step to going smoke-free! Simply listing down and reminding yourself of the reasons to quit have increased your chances of quitting.

Next week, we’ll look at the benefits of stubbing out.

Related: Build Your Quitting Game Plan

Resources for Quitting

Join the I Quit Programme and remain smoke free for 28 days and you are 5 times more likely to quit smoking. You can nominate your loved ones as a supporter when you sign up for the programme. Validate your smoke-free status and redeem a HPB eVoucher* worth $50 at the 28th day milestone. Keep going and you'll also receive eVouchers* worth $30 and $20 at the 3rd month and 6th month milestone respectively!

*Terms and conditions apply.

 

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