Well... you didn`t!
This was a huge lesson for me, because that is what I believed for years. For decades... I stubbornly held on to the belief that I loved smoking, and that kept me doing it for years. It turns out it was all a huge misconception. An error.
Think of something you love. Anything... chocolate, exercise, reading, movies, going out, wine, skiing, swimming, sunbathing... anything.
Yes, you might miss it. But will you feel barely able to function? Will you start having panic attacks, and headaches, and insomnia, and fatigue, and gas, and tightness in you chest, and irritability, and anger, and memory problems? Huh? Does ANYTHING else have this effect on you?
And where does this feeling of `liking` come from? I think the addiction grows on you so gradually that you mistake relief for enjoyment. It is like stepping into quicksand and thinking... `oooh... that feels good... all warm and squishy... and I can step out anytime I like`. And then one day it no longer feels that way and you find yourself trapped up to your waist. And it is diabolically hard to get out. This habit is insidious, it is sneaky, and we have trouble seeing it for what it really is.
And guess what? Once you stop believing that you liked it, quitting becomes a lot easier because you no longer feel like you are giving something up. You will feel like you were duped but you are now correcting a problem. A craving does not mean that YOU want the cigarette. It means that something else is compelling you to smoke, but you have the power to decide whether this will happen or not. If you look at it this way, you will not feel deprived by saying no. You will see smoking for what it is... a vicious circle that satisfies the need it creates, robs you of everything and leaves you with nothing of value. A pretty bad deal, don`t you think? Doesn`t that make it a lot easier to refuse it?