The one thing absolutely guaranteed to help you quit smoking         

[NOV. 14, 2005]  CUMMING, Ga.-- With a title like the one above you're probably skeptical. Who wouldn't be? It's so difficult to quit smoking, there can't possible be a foolproof way to quit. Besides, if someone invented a guaranteed way to quit, the tobacco companies would probably "buy them out."

Well, I'm here to tell you that there is one way to guarantee that you quit smoking.

I was watching the comedy "City Slickers" the other day. In it Billy Crystal plays a middle-aged man who has "lost his smile" and can't seem to find happiness or meaning in his life. So he sets off with some friends to go on a "fantasy vacation" where they get to play cowboys on a real cattle drive. Jack Palance plays a crusty old cowboy named Curly, guiding the "city folk" on the drive.

Billy Crystal and Jack Palance are having a conversation along the trail. Palance asks Crystal, "Do you know what the secret of life is?"

Crystal responds "No, what?"

Palance holds up his gloved index finger and says, "This."

Crystal wisecracks, "Your finger?"

Palance continues, "One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean @#*$"

Crystal asks, "That's great, but what's the one thing?"

Then Palance gives Crystal the nugget of wisdom I want you to pay attention to: "That's what you've gotta figure out."

As long as there have been cigarettes, there have been smokers. And as long as there have been smokers, there have been smokers who wanted to quit. Consequently, there have also been people and companies offering ideas, plans and products to help those smokers quit.

Because every smoker is different, there is not a single "cure" for smoking. If that were the case, I'd have to write only one article and send it out over and over again. There would be only one quit-smoking product on the QuitSmoking.com website.

But guess what? What works to help you quit smoking doesn't work for the next person who is quitting. Even the giant drug manufacturers with all their millions of dollars available for research can't seem to find a product that will help more than 20 percent to 50 percent -- depending on which study you read -- of their customers quit permanently.

So, do you just throw in the towel and give up this hopeless cause? Absolutely not! You keep trying until you quit.

At the end of "City Slickers," after Billy Crystal and his friends have tested their mettle and "found themselves" during the difficult cattle drive, they are talking about the changes they are going to make in their lives. Bruno Kirby plays one of Crystal's friends on the trip. He asks Crystal, "You going to be OK?"

Crystal responds, "Yeah, 'cause I know what he meant."

"Who?" Kirby asks.

"Curly. I know what this is," Crystal says, holding up his index finger.

Kirby is confused and asks, "What?"

Crystal explains, "That's what you have to figure out."

Frustrated, Kirby threatens, "I'm gonna deck you, pal!"

Then Crystal tells him the final truth that I want you to understand: "No, that's what it is -- it's something different for everybody. It's whatever is most important for you."

I'm often asked what's the best way to quit smoking. The answer is simple: THE WAY THAT WORKS FOR **YOU**.

Why am I writing an article for this e-zine twice per month? I want you to have many different thoughts and approaches for quitting. If you try one method and don't succeed, try again. Keep looking until you find the solution that's right for YOU. That's the "one thing" absolutely guaranteed to help you quit smoking.

[** Article copyright Fred Kelley of QuitSmoking.com. Visit the website at http://www.quitsmoking.com for great information and products designed to help you quit smoking.]