Do These Smoking Excuses
Sound Familiar?

There's one thing about the smoking habit that's unique, in that there isn't any other physical activity you can substitute for it.

In golf and in bowling the way to overcome a bad habit is to substitute a new-and good-habit. You discover that you're holding the club or the ball incorrectly; you learn how to grasp it correctly; you practice until the new grip becomes your habitual grip.

You can change almost any habit in the same way- your work habits, your approach to a sport, the way you drive or stand, the way you speak. But I found that there's one thing about the smoking habit that's unique. There isn't any other physical activity you can substitute for it.

Sure, you can nibble on mints, chew gum, drink water, or even suck your thumb if you wish-but don't tell any cigarette smoker that anything other than tobacco will satisfy his craving for a smoke.

Let me list some of the "new habits" that didn't work for me.

• Carrying a pipe, clamping it in my teeth when I wanted a cigarette. I felt silly.
  
  
• Carrying a cigarette, holding it, even putting it to my lips, but not lighting it. (Eventually I lit it.)

• Daily use of pills that were supposed to make cigarettes taste evil. They did, and so I stopped using the pills. (The cigarettes then tasted just fine.)
  
  
• Chewing gum. Have you ever chewed thirty sticks of gum in one day?
  
  
• Eating mints. Fine for after dinner, but have you recently tried a mint with your morning coffee?
  
  
• Cutting my cigarettes in half, since that would "cut my smoking in half." I learned that the closer the burning tars and nicotine are to the mouth, the graver the danger. This seemed to be jumping from one conflagration to another.
  
  
• Carrying just three cigarettes with me-one to follow each meal. But have you ever counted the number of cigarettes offered you in one day of normal business life? It's formidable.
  
  
• Betting. I hate to admit this, but there have been many times when just one cigarette seemed worth the five dollars I thereby committed myself to paying.
  
  
• Rewarding myself. I'd make a deal with myself. "Jack, if you just give up smoking, you can have that new set of golf clubs you want." Two days later: "Your old clubs are good enough, Heise!"
  

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