"Just stop", we're told. Stop smoking, that is, by just deciding to stop. Wouldn't it be great if it were that easy? But the fact is that both physiological changes and psychological issues play a role in any stop-smoking program. Even the most determined can rarely just flip a switch and never smoke cigarettes again.

Still, a commitment to do so has to be a part of any program. Only 6% on average will successfully stop smoking their first try. Summoning up the willpower to make that decision permanent is key to succeeding in the long run.

Up your odds by understanding what willpower is and how it functions in a stop smoking program.

In any area of life, we make many small choices. But the big ones are very rarely a matter of snapping the mental fingers and choosing a course of action. It takes more thought and effort than that. Those twin helpers are the link between willpower and achievement of the goal.

Stress is one major factor that starts individuals smoking, and keeps them at it year after year. Some event occurs, it's evaluated as a negative impact over which we have little control, and we feel stress. The next action is to reach for a cigarette to restore calm.

At several points along that moving train of events, it is possible to interrupt the journey.

Start small. Look for those times when reaching for a cigarette is just a habitual move. You get up in the morning and reach for the first cigarette. Put them out of easy reach and exert willpower to forego the effort of getting them. Delay that cigarette after dinner, first by a few extra minutes then more and more. These small victories will reduce the number of cigarettes per day and strengthen your willpower.

As you gradually gain better control over impulses, your self-confidence grows. You feel in control. That reinforces the feeling that your willpower can be effective, that you can direct events rather than have them direct you.

Now, for the long term plan. Pick a day when you'll stop smoking. Estimate how many cigarettes you have left so you run out by that date. Just as you would resist buying an item more expensive than you could afford, remind yourself of the high price of smoking - in dollars and health impact.

The first two weeks will be hardest, making the largest demands on your willpower. The cravings are strongest during this period. The chemical changes taking place as your body adjusts to lower levels of dopamine, flushes smoke ingredient-created compounds out of the body and other physical impacts will create the urge to resume.

Help yourself by thinking of the long term consequences. Stimulate your imagination by viewing photos of diseased lungs, remember the time you were short of breath walking up the hill. Assist your willpower in every way you can.

After that, the really hard part starts: sticking to the plan for a lifetime. Willpower isn't just about choosing an action at the moment, but directing your life toward a better horizon.

Psychotherapy can help you stop smoking permanently. But it need not involve expensive counseling sessions with a professional. Any mixture of self-help and outside assistance can up your odds of a permanent change in behavior, one conducive to long-term health.

Don't limit your choice to any one school of psychotherapy - there are a dozen or more. Use techniques from each to get you to your goal: quitting smoking permanently.

Hypnosis is one popular technique that has proven to be successful. It's been around since the 19th century as a therapeutic method. Though once associated with charlatans, professionals currently see a role for it in helping modify many behaviors. After all, the physical addiction associated with smoking is only one aspect. Long term change requires an adjustment to the mind and hypnosis is well suited for facilitating the adjustment.

Hypnosis involves making suggestions that are retained at a sub-conscious level. Those hidden triggers that encourage the choice to smoke can be combated by instilling other triggers that oppose them.

More conscious efforts are also desirable. Cognitive therapy for example, focuses on discovering and understanding those thoughts and ideas that are in our control. When they're examined carefully, they can be influenced by reference to fact and logic.

One way to use that approach is to make a list of all those events and objects associated with the decision to smoke. Write down the times you reach for a cigarette, and what prompted the choice. Is it a blind habit to light up right after waking up? Do you reach for a cigarette right after a meeting with the boss, who gives you yet another unpleasant assignment?

Looking for those triggers is the key to bringing them into conscious awareness, where they can be subject to conscious control. The approach is similar to traditional psychoanalysis - bringing items up from the subconscious. But cognitive therapy regards them as having been placed there through past thinking, not necessarily unexamined childhood or other events. Therefore, those thoughts can be intentionally replaced with new thoughts by a conscious effort.It's not an automatic process, nor one devoid of any emotional involvement. Quite the opposite: feelings and thought need to be harmonized.

That effort is key to long term success. Simply knowing what motivates you to smoke is only half the exercise. Doing something about it is equally important.That can mean redirecting your focus onto other activities. Instead of having a smoke to relieve stress, do yourself a double favor and exercise for a few minutes. Foregoing one cigarette reduces by that small amount the habit that is injuring your health - give them up one at a time, if necessary. Many people make the mistake of "biting off more than they can chew." If you aren't the type for cold-turkey quitting, then don't set yourself up for failure by attempting it. Exercising is building it up in the direction toward health. Or, instead of reaching for a cigarette to accompany that beer or fine glass of wine, select a small piece of fruit, bread or chocolate.

In each case, the technique is to redirect that decision to smoke a cigarette. It moves onto something that helps both eliminate one smoking episode and presents a desirable yet healthy alternative.

All long-term behavior modification can only come from re-forming habits. There was a time when you didn't smoke. To reach that time again, develop a plan then carry it out, one choice at a time.