INTERPRETING THE REAL LIFE STORY: Diego’s Experience
My fitness and wellness class motivated me to try to quitsmoking, again! It wasn’t anything new, because I had tried severaltimes before. I had my first cigarette when I was sixteen and Ihave now smoked for 10 years. I have tried to quit for the lastfive years. But during this time, the longest I ever went without acigarette was about three months. When we did the chapter onbehavior change, I started paying attention and taking all kinds ofnotes. Since it talked about lots of different things to helpsomeone make a change, I figured I could try one at a time until Ifound whatever worked. I can tell you some things that didn’t work.When I announced to all my friends that I was quitting, they endedup making fun of me because I’d tried to quit so many times before.And then when they saw me light up again, they made fun of me evenworse. I know they thought they were being funny, but it reallymade me feel discouraged. I think that telling people you arequitting could work, if you had different friends than the guys Ihang out with. What finally worked for me almost two years after Ifinished the class was a combination of things. I set a SMART goal.I worked on my environment to avoid situations that made me want tosmoke. Often when I wanted to smoke, I went for a jog, playedsports, or went to the library to get rid of the craving. Eventhough it took me a really long time, I credit my success to thatmoment back in that class when I decided that I would try everymethod, and keep on trying, until something worked. Before, I wasashamed at how many times I had tried and failed to quit. But now,I’m proud of my accomplishment because I think most other peoplewould have just given up. I have been smoke-free for twoyears.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. What are some reasons why it was good for Diego to try togive up smoking?
2. Quitting smoking is a very difficult behavior change tomake. If you needed to make such a change to your own addictivebehavior, what methods would you use to increase your chances ofsuccess?
3. How do you think the process of writing a SMART goal andtracking your progress might contribute to your success inachieving that goal?
