Don't stay away from friends — A Plus on how to quit smoking

We all know the health risks of smoking, but that does not make it any easier to kick the habit. Whether you are an occasional teen smoker or a lifetime pack-a-day smoker, quitting can be really tough.

Contrary to what has long been propagated in the minds of people, founder and leader of The People's Project (TPP), Kwame Asare Obeng, popularly known as A Plus, has disclosed that one cannot quit smoking by doing away with his/her friends.

In a chronological record of events on Facebook, A Plus disclosed he was once a chain smoker and remained in the act for twenty (20) years until he was able to overpower it.

The trick, according to Kwame, was how he talked to his inner self about his decision to quit the smoking and also maintaining the very friends he committed the act with.

Ready to give up on smoking? These tips from Kwame A Plus will help you kick the habit for good.

Read his full post below:

I was a chain smoker. On a very good day, I smoked a pack or more. I began smoking in 1994 and never stopped till 2014 - twenty straight years.

One day, I decided to call it to quit. I bought a new pack of cigarette and organised my own cigarette send-off party that morning, I treated myself to about five sticks of kingsize. After, I placed the pack on my bedside cabinet and said to myself, "Enough, I need a break!!" Then I sat in front of my mirror, and said to myself, If you are truly the master of your soul, though you will see this cigarette when you wake up and before you go to bed, and you shall be tempted to smoke it, do not touch it for a year. And yes, I did it.

From June 16th 2014 to June 16th 2015, I did not smoke. But you see, when you win the champions league, you want to win it back to back. I therefore decided to challenge myself for another year. And once again, I was successful. For two straight years, I had a pack of cigarette on my bedside cabinet, kept the same friends I used to smoke with, went to the same places I used to smoke at but didn't smoke a stick. By that time, after two years of not smoking, my system had naturally rejected it and I could not smoke again. I removed the cigarette from my room and threw it away. At long last, the battle had ended.

It has been six years since I quit smoking and I want to say a very big thank you to the man in me for being strong.

Maybe you are struggling to quit. There is a man or woman in you who wants to help but it has to start with you. The truth is that it is not easy. Your will power must be on another level to be able to quit. You have to be in total control of yourself. From my experience, I can offer some advice to help you - that is, if you are struggling to quit smoking;

1. Don't stay away from friends you used to smoke with because you want to quit. It is not the company you keep. It is about being the master of your soul. Be tempted, resist the temptation. Anybody who can resist tobaccotemptation is a hero. It is not easy.

2. Don't stop smoking because you don't have a cigarette. Keep one. It can be in your pocket, your car, or in your room. Just make a DECISION not to smoke. If the reason why you are not smoking is that you don't have access to a cigarette, the day you'll have access to it, you'll smoke like crazy and chew the box after.

3. Don't substitute it with electronic cigarettes. Just just!!!

4. Set goals. have a deep conversation with yourself and make a DECISION to quit. Sit with your friends, watch them smoke If you succeed in resisting the temptation to smoke, go home and mark "day 1 "If you don't come in contact with smokers and for that matter, you were not tempted, don't count Do this for 30 days and you'll feel like a winner.

It is not about what someone said about smoking. It is not because your doctor said whatever. It is about you being in charge of you. As author Germany Kent puts it, you cannot live the same day over and over again and call that a life. Life is about evolving mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.

My new challenge is to get six packs I'm trying. So help me Aburi mountain.