I cannot repeat too often that it is brainwashing that makes it difficult to stop smoking, and the more brainwashing we can dispel before we start, the easier you will find it to achieve your goal. Occasionally I get into arguments with people whom I call confirmed smokers. By my definition a confirmed smoker is somebody who can afford it, doesn't believe it injures his health and isn't worried about the social stigma. (There are not many about nowadays.) If he is a young man, I say to him,' I cannot believe you are not worried about the money you are
spending.' Usually his eyes light up. If I had attacked him on health grounds or on the social stigma, he would feel at a disadvantage, but on money --' Oh, I can afford it. It is only £x per week and I think it is
worth it. It is my only vice or pleasure,' etc.
If he is a twenty-per-day smoker I say to him, I still cannot believe you are not worried about the
money. You are going to spend over £40,000 in your lifetime. What are you doing with that money?
You are not even setting light to it or throwing it away. You are actually using that money to ruin your
physical health, to destroy your nerves and confidence, to suffer a lifetime of slavery, a lifetime of
bad breath and stained teeth. Surely that must worry you?'
It is apparent at this point, particularly with young smokers, that they have never considered it a
lifetime expense. For most smokers the price of a packet is bad enough. Occasionally we work
out what we spend in a week, and that is alarming. Very occasionally (and only when we think
about stopping) we estimate what we spend in a year and that is frightening, but over a lifetime
- it is unthinkable.
However, because it is an argument the confirmed smoker will say, 'I can afford it. It is only so
much a week.' He does an 'encyclopedia salesman' on himself,
I then say, 'I will make you an offer you cannot refuse. You pay me £1,000 now, and I will
provide you with free cigarettes for the rest of your life,'
If I were offering to take over a £40,000 mortgage for £1,000, the smoker would have my signature, on
a piece of paper before I could move, and yet not one confirmed smoker (and please bear in mind 1
am not now talking to someone like yourself who plans to stop, I am talking to someone who has
no intention of stopping) has ever taken me up on that offer. Why not?
Often at this point in my consultation, a smoker will say, 'Look, I am not really worried about the
money aspect,' If you are thinking along these lines, ask yourself why you are not worried. Why in
other aspects of life you will go to a great deal of trouble to save a few pounds here and there and
yet spend thousands of pounds poisoning yourself and hang the expense?
The answer to these questions is this. Every other decision that you make in your life will be the
result of an analytical process of weighing up the pros and cons and arriving at a rational answer. It
may be the wrong answer, but at least it will be the result of rational deduction. Whenever any
smoker weighs up the pros and cons of smoking, the answer is a dozen times over: 'STOP
SMOKING! YOU ARE A MUG!' Therefore all smokers are smoking not because they want to or
because they decided to but because they think they cannot stop. They have to brainwash
themselves. They have to keep their heads in the sand.
The strange thing is smokers will arrange pacts among themselves, such as 'First one to give in
pays the other £50', yet the thousands of pounds that they would save by stopping don't seem to affect
them. This is because they are still thinking with the brainwashed mind of the smoker.
Just take the sand out of your eyes for a moment. Smoking is a chain reaction and a chain for life.
If you do not break that chain, you will remain a smoker for the rest of your life. Now estimate how
much you think you will spend on smoking for the rest of your life. The amount will obviously vary
with each individual, but for the purpose of this exercise let us assume it is £10,000.
You will shortly be making the decision to smoke your final cigarette (not yet, please - remember
the initial instructions). All you have to do to remain a non-smoker is not to fall for the trap again.
That is, do not smoke that first cigarette. If you do, that one cigarette will cost you £10,000.
If you think this is a trick way of looking at it, you are still kidding yourself. Just work out how
much money you would have saved if you hadn't smoked your first cigarette.
If you see the argument as factual, ask yourself how you would feel if there were a cheque from
Littlewood's Pools for £10,000 on your carpet tomorrow. You'd be dancing with delight! So start
dancing! You are about to start receiving that bonus, and that's just one of the several marvelous
gains you are about to receive.
During the withdrawal period you may be tempted to have just one final cigarette. It will help you
to resist the temptation if you remind yourself it will cost you £10,000 (or whatever your estimate is)!
I've been making that offer on television and radio programmes for years. I still find it incredible
that not one confirmed smoker has ever taken my offer up. There are members of my golf club whom I
taunt every time I hear them complain about an increase in tobacco prices. In fact, ['m frightened that
if I goad them too much, one of them will take me up on it. I'd lose a fortune if he did.
If you are in the company of happy, cheerful smokers who tell you how much they enjoy it, just tell
them that you know an idiot who, if they pay him a years smoking money in advance, will provide
them with free cigarettes for the rest of their lives. Perhaps you can find me someone who will take
up the offer?