Quitting

I received an interesting question recently. It was about how to make our “advice powerful” and “motivate in an effective manner”. In particular with regard to quitting smoking.

Before I get too far into my answer I must admit that I have no special expertise in smoking cessation and, personally, I’ve never smoked.

So, I will make some comments based upon the general principles of communication which I do understand quite well.

Firstly, there is a myth surrounding motivation. Many dentists think that there are magic words that you can say that will motivate unmotivated patients.

They think that if they can just find the right combination of words they can take a patient from zero to one hundred in a matter of minutes.

I disagree. You cannot motivate totally disinterested people. They must at least have some interest to start with or you are wasting your time.

But, assuming the patient has some interest there are things you can do to make your “advice powerful”. I spend over an hour on this topic in my online seminar but here are three ideas to get you started.

1. Don’t be wishy washy
   Don’t say: “Perhaps you might want to one day consider giving up smoking”. Instead let them clearly know what you advise with no beating around the bush.

2. Don’t be pushy
   This is as bad as wishy washy. The more you push, the more people will push back. Don’t be like a broken record going round and round endlessly on the same topics.

3. Advantages and disadvantages
   Let them know the advantages and disadvantages of their options. If you do this the drawback is… If you do this the advantage is…

I hope this helps.