So you say you want to give up the smokes.

My patient today came in and said, “I want to give up smoking”.

He was smoking 20 a day.

He said he had tried everything…

…and the only success he’d had was not smoking for two weeks — after he broke three ribs.

Presumably, the pain was quite intense and filling his lungs with smoke was beyond his capacity to tolerate.

Nonetheless, he was back to smoking and so I suggested Champix.

I suggested nicotine patches.

He said I wish giving up ciggies was as easy as giving up a pot.

He had successfully done that 9 years ago.

But the ciggies had his balls.

He said he was just going to make a decision and he would quit.

But, if it was that easy…

Why hadn’t he done that already?

I asked him…

So, why?

Why is it important for you to give up smoking?

Well, Doc…. Came the answer…

“I want to see my granddaughters 21st.”

“Or at least her 18th.”

“She is 3 right now.”

Well, OK.

There was something there.

Something I could use.

I said…

What I want you to do…

…Is to take a photo of your granddaughter and stick it on your cigarette packets.

This is going to force you to make a very clear choice between them and your granddaughter.

You say you want to give up smoking.

You say you want to see her 21st…

So if you can do this, you will be literally having to reach past your granddaughter’s future with you to get each and every cigarette.

The principle here is that he needed some way of getting leverage on himself in order to change.

So I have found myself saying I wanted to do something, and not doing it…

…And it was because I had no leverage on myself.

Some doctors going through their exams, this is the exact problem.

It’s not that you don’t know what to do, or how to do it…

But rather you end up procrastinating and becoming an “exam pretender” instead finding the leverage on yourself to DO THE WORK required.

Sure, you might get through.

Great, you got away with it.

But, perhaps if you had found a way to actually get leverage on yourself to do the work required — you pass the exams AND you are in integrity with your results.

If you need to get leverage on yourself, then sometimes you have to step up and get skin in the game.

And just like my smoking man, if you are willing to confront yourself with the difficult realities you will experience if you do not pass…

Then you will find the leverage you are seeking.

Need more help?

What I want you to do, is to head to https://graduatemedicine.com/gpea now and find the leverage on yourself that you are looking for.