How I Quit Vaping (& the Business Lessons I Learned) Business Fixer Podcast 010

In This Episode You Will Discover

About The Business Fixer Podcast

Hosted by Haroon Rashid, the Business Fixer Podcast is for any business owner who wants to know how to get from A to B in the simplest possible way. This business podcast is full of business tips including leadership, sales, marketing, finance, culture and much more. Does something need fixing in your business? Don’t know where to begin with your startup, grow or turn around your business? Whether you’re a startup, established business or a multimillion-pound business, the Business Fixer podcast will help you understand where you are, clearly define where you want to be and guide you on the road to get there.

[SPONSOR] Dad Mode

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[SHOW NOTES] How I Turned Around A Department That Was Losing £20K A Month!

[BOOK RECOMMENDATION] Atomic Habits – James Clear

[TRANSCRIPTION] How I Quit Vaping (& the Business Lessons I Learned)

Business Fixer Podcast – 010

Hey, sports fans, and welcome to the Business Fixer podcast where we believe that clarity is king and simplicity is queen. I am your host Haroon Rashid. Today, episode 10 – How I quit vaping and the business lessons that you can learn from what I’m about to teach you in this. It’s a really strange episode, I guess, a little bit left field, but hell it’s my podcast. I can do what I want. (Laughs) 

The Business Fixer podcast is sponsored by Dad Mode. That is hilarious dad gifts – that’s dad joke t-shirts dad joke mugs. And we have just launched theDad Mode podcast. And we’re doing a special thing where each episode we interview people, uh, who are working in mental health, specifically preventing male suicide. And we were so lucky that we could, um, interview Andrew Greenway from a wonderful, uh, charity – Andy’s Man Club, which is based in Halifax, West Yorkshire. And they do a lot of work with helping men with their mental health, preventing men suicide and all that great stuff. And we created a special promo code Andy, A-N-D-Y. Where, when you purchase anything on the Dad Mode website using that promo code, Dad Mode will donate a percentage of the profits to Andy’s Man Club. So head over to dadmode.co.uk and search for the podcast. And you can, uh, go and check out that great show, great interview, and do something for a great cause.

So I have been vaping. All right – was vaping for a good four years or so. And, uh, my wife hated it. Absolutely hated it. Every time I took a took on the old, uh, you know, uh, vaping machine, uh, she said I would sound like Darth Vader. I wasn’t allowed to vape in the house. And she got so angry every time we were out and about. Because, you know, when we were out and about, I would get radgy if I hadn’t had it for a while and I’d have to go out somewhere or to a designated smoking area and do my vaping. And for years I had tried to quit vaping and I just couldn’t do it. I try things like, you know, trying to go as long as I could, without it, you know, it was like an hour that I tried to get it to two hours and three hours, but I would always end up falling off the wagon and vaping again And it was getting more and more strenuous for, for me. Uh, my wife, just like I said, she just absolutely hated it. And it was always a, a thing of complaint, uh, I guess, um, 

And then one day I did something different and this is why I wanted to teach you. And I teach this a lot with my, uh, Business Fixer clients, and it comes from a great book called Atomic Habits. And basically all I did was I changed who I was from an identity point of view. That was it. The reason I was failing was because I still saw myself as a vaper. I kept saying to myself, “Yeah, but I’m just addicted and that’s what I do. I’m a vaper.” This time when I tried to quit. And by the way, I’ve been, uh, off the vape now for a good month now. And I’m absolutely fine. I’m not going to be going back to it. This is the longest I’ve ever gone without, uh, nicotine in my system for, um, you know, a good four years. But all I did was I changed my identity and I said, I”’m not a vaper.” 

So, as I say, this came from Atomic Habits by James Clear. And if you go over to businessfixer.co.uk I will put the link to that book in the show notes, fantastic book, and a must read, but he gave the…he gave the example of someone who is trying to lose weight. So he said, rather than you just trying to go for willpower, that’s just not going to work, change who you are from an identity point of view and say, “I am a healthy person.” And if you do that, and if you try and identify by yourself or change your identity to a healthy person, you will then start doing what healthy people. E.g. When you go to a restaurant, you will order water instead of carbonated drinks or fizzy drinks, you will exercise more. You will eat less sugar or less of that, or, you know, et cetera, et cetera, because that’s what a healthy person does it. So as of, as a person who was quitting nicotine, I said to myself, “I’m not a vaper. I don’t need nicotine in my system.” And every time a craving came to me, I would just say, “But I’m not a vaper. I shouldn’t be, I shouldn’t even be having this craving. Why is that even there ‘cause I’m not a vaper.” And over time the cravings got less, less intense, and now I’m absolutely fine. I’ve even been in situations where I’ve been out, you know, in a social setting for a drink with some people where I would vape a lot and they smoke and I’ve not been tempted to do it.

I’m absolutely fine, because I keep saying to myself, “I’m not a vaper.” I’ve even started going as far as to try and associate a negative thing against that. And I would say, you know, I, uh, don’t think it looks good or it’s really bad for health and blah, blah, blah. So now starting to form that negative attachment to it, but that’s okay.

The main thing is if there’s something in your business or hell even your life, and you’re trying to quit something or do something, or, you know, you want it, there’s some goal that you’ve not achieved for a long time. Why not try changing your identity. If you want it to write a book, maybe you should say, “I’m a writer.”

Start thinking of yourself as a writer and a writer writes or writes or writes at least once a day, or they write for an hour a day, at least, you know, as long as you start changing things from an identity level, you’ll change what you do and end up having what they have. And that’s it for today. Nice shot.

One bit of a left-field one. As I say, I don’t really care. It’s my podcast. I can do what the hell I want. Uh, thank you so much to everybody who has been listening and sending me messages. I really appreciate it. Please do check us out on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe there, Google, Amazon Music and Stitcher and all that good stuff where you get your podcasts.

I really appreciate all the support guys. And until then, Take care, sports fans.