I did a program last night that made me think of this one. Our city went smoke free on July 1--no smoking in any workplace including all bars and restaurants. To accommodate people who may have wanted to quit we offered up two free seminars--the first one was last night. It actually got some good press releases and had pretty good visibility in local papers reaching tens of thousands of people.

We had 5 people show up for the session. Two of them were long term ex-smokers I know who were just stopping in for reinforcement. One was off for 15 years and the other was off for 28 years. The 28 year ex-smoker was really coming in to see what my seminars were like--I met her at a Chamber of Commerce meeting last week. The 15 year ex-smoker is one of my regular panelists who had just lost her mother to lung cancer a couple of months ago. She had been trying to get her mother to quit for many years. I don't think she was feeling her quit was being threatened but more likely was coming to help others realize the importance of quitting.

There were two other people who were clinic graduates who had relapsed. One was a man who had quit once for 18 years and relapsed and has been trying to get off again now for the past couple of years. He had just been off a week now. The other was a woman who had quit for two years after being in the clinic, lost that quit and who has not been able to get another effective quit going.

That left only one person in the program who I was now meeting for the first time--a 50 year old man trying to quit. He had a six month quit going once but lost that a couple of years ago. He was coming in to learn about quitting now. He saw one of the ads in the local paper.

I wrote the original article here over 12 years ago. Things haven't changed much since then.

I have another seminar scheduled tomorrow. It is a daytime program. I actually won't be a bit surprised if no one shows up for it.

There is an old saying that you can lead a camel or a horse to water but you cannot make them drink. I kind of feel that the problem we have with getting people to quit smoking through these free seminars is the opposite of this. If we can get people to the seminars we can give them the information they need to succeed. The problem is trying to get them to the seminars.

Oh, the information that they will get if they do come in that can help them to succeed. It is the understanding that to quit smoking and then to stay permanently free is as simple as making and sticking to a personal commitment to never take another puff.

Joel