h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've always been a fan of the quote "Giving up smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times” by Mark Twain. Always makes me chuckle and is a saying I'd often quote to my friends when badgered about smoking. And I'll be honest, most of my friends don't smoke, but that didn't seem to make a difference to me smoking around them, even though I knew I was making them smell as bad as me.
I tried many ways to quit believe me. Cutting down or the Yo-Yo method as I'm calling it now, coz the amount you smoke does go down but goes straight back up again! I tried full on Cold Turkey, avoiding smokey venues, smoking friends, smokers on the street, you name it - But I split with my girlfriend, and in my hour of tragedy who was there to comfort me but my trusty cigarettes. I even tried hypnotherapy tapes, which worked for a couple of weeks but the urge came back after a heavy night on the JD's and I was back to square one.
Now though I think I've cracked it. Everything I read is about willpower, avoiding smokers and situations where you smoke, putting your mind on other things etc..I think this is rubbish. All you doing is avoiding the inevitable - that you will be in a situation where you'll be surrounded by smokers - having not been near one will sure be tempting - look at what you've been missing out on! Be around them more, get used to people lighting up and you not, get used to the smells, and the longer you go on the more the smell you notice trust me! And all this you got to want to quit is nonsense, I don't know any smokers that truly want to quit - some may need to due to health - but most would still rather light up but its becoming a bit too anti-social to do so, and will be even more when the pubs ban it. The way I've done it is to just not have one. I let others smoke around me, and get on with it. If you don't want one then don't have one. This isn't will power but your choice. The initial pang goes after a few minutes. Sure I've found myself eating a few more biccies and munching on grapes etc..But at least I ain't smoking anymore. At the end of the day I wouldn't trust using patches, gum, drugs or any of that. The way I look at it people have the wrong way of looking at 'quitting' smoking. It shouldn't be a contest or a show of strength by counting the number of days you've gone with out a cigarette, because your only counting the number of days/years until you fall again. Once you stop, that’s it, no more I've quit for ex amount of days, just I'm a non-smoker, I don't smoke, that’s it, move on, thank you.

p.s.
I know this may sound naive, or stupid and people may totally disagree, but I really feel that as smokers the pressure put on ourselves, by ourselves and others to quit makes it almost impossible to do so, its human nature to set ourselves up to fall back down again. Take away the crap, the hype, the grandeur of the whole 'look at me I've stopped smoking' and it becomes a hell of a lot easier' It’s the whole Willpower hand in hand with Wanting to stop smoking that’s gets me…Willpower means you need the strength to stop doing something you want to do ‘smoking’, but if you really wanted to quit smoking surely you wouldn’t need the willpower to do so, that goes back to what I was saying before about smokers not really wanting to quit in the first place. To smoke or not to smoke is that the question? Yes and it’s the answer, your choice, just smoke or don’t. No pressure.