Welcome back to the Quit Vaping Podcast! My name is Andrew Cipriano, and I'm the life coach is going to help you quit vaping. So if you have not listened to episode two, I'd recommend you go back and do that. That's my foundational episode to tell you how a life coach helps people stop vaping. And then if you, Are here in your new, if you're not new, whatever, welcome back brand new.

Welcome. Whatever you want to say. I guess I'm confusing myself. I'm having a good time today. You okay. I'm just going to leave this in here. So today we're talking about it not being about vaping this podcast, my desire to help people quit vaping. It has nothing to do with vaping. I want you to know that people think I'm anti nicotine.

I'm not anti nicotine. Although I think the vaping companies do predatory marketing. And I think that. A lot of them are a little bit amoral in their practices. I do believe that I wouldn't personally do it myself and make money off of it. Um, I do want to offer that this has nothing to do with vaping.

I'm a life coach. My job is to help you become the best version of yourself because I think when the world is full of strong people Who are able to feel their emotions and create the lives they want the world becomes a better place for everyone including me So it's kind of selfish Well, of course it is.

Everything we do is selfish, but really I like helping people. And I like helping people become the best version of yourself. I really enjoy it. It's like totally my passion. I don't care where I am. I could be at a party on Saturday night and I'm going to talk to you about your life and how it's going upward in a spiral upward.

And like, I don't care. My friends know me like that. They're annoyed with me. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. And I would offer that that's the way that you should own a business anyways. It's not about vaping when I do this podcast. It's not about any of that. I was addicted to vaping for a long time and I don't do this because again, I'm not anti nicotine.

It's because Of who I wasn't able to become because I was addicted to nicotine. So really fast. I don't make any kind of health claims in this podcast. That's not what this is. If you want health claims go like on the CDC website or wherever the hell you want to go and get some kind of information.

That's not what I do, but I do the psychological part of vaping, right? And I believe that if you are addicted to something, you psychologically cannot become the best version of yourself who is capable, willing to experience strong emotions and create the life that you want and stands up in the face of tyranny, which is so dramatic.

But I really believe that, right? Like. You know, if you look into the past, people have been enslaved and put into wars and all these horrible things happen and dictators have come up. And I think that the reason that happens is because we forget to put power into the individual, which is kind of deep.

But one of the biggest, the biggest people that's really helped me in my life, his name is Jordan Peterson. And the whole entire point with Jordan Peterson is that when I was very, very, very depressed, he saved my life by giving me really, really pragmatic, straightforward advice about how to live my life to become the best version of myself.

He gave me the responsibility I was so hoping for and wanting back into my life so that I could create the life I wanted. So I'm very, very indebted to him, um, and his teachings, regardless of what you think about his politics. So I think it's important to mention that he talks a lot about the power of the individual.

And in life coaching, although they're not using that terminology, that is in fact what we're doing. As a life coach, I'm helping you bring your power back to yourself as an individual. And one of the ways that we disempower ourselves as individuals is by becoming addicted to things externally. Outside of ourselves and this could take the form of many things.

It could look like porn. It could look like nicotine It could look like alcohol. It could look like sex. It could look like power, right? We don't want to be addicted to things because when we are addicted to things they have control over us and the very definition of Disempowering is removing the power or control you have over yourself to make change in your life or decisions So when you are vaping when you're addicted to something like nicotine, although You think the health effects are not big and maybe they aren't.

I'm not here to argue that. I clearly, we can all agree it's not healthy, but I'm not here to argue the nuances and health effects versus vaping and cigarettes or anything like that. What I am here to argue is that psychologically it has a huge cost for you to be addicted to something when you are vaping constantly.

And when it's what you think about for like. 80 percent of your day and there's always a thought about nicotine in your head and there's always the concern about when you're going to get it and feeling out of control. You are not able to become a powerful version of yourself. You don't trust yourself like you would if you weren't addicted to things.

You don't believe that you're going to follow through on things that you tell yourself because the addiction speaks louder. Most of the times you don't actually set goals for yourself that it's going to confront you with negative emotion because you're already using a substance because you're claiming it's helping you with negative emotion.

And I want to offer this to you. The way that you become the best version of yourself, the one who goes after your dreams, creates the life you want, live whatever lifestyle and dream that you want. That's so available to you. The way you do that is by learning how to experience discomfort willingly and courageously.

And when you are using nicotine in place of feeling your emotions, that's impossible to do. And the, the skillset of living your dreams is indeed a skillset that you practice. Every single time that you hit your vape, you're actually taking a step further away from learning the necessary to create the life you want.

It has nothing to do with vaping. Why do this as a life coach? Do I care about your health and do I care about you and I think you're worthy? Yes. Do I love everybody unconditionally? I try to my best. I really care about people. I think it's important. I think that it's important to have voices stand up against predatory marketing.

I think it's important to have voices stand up against people who are making a living getting other people addicted to harmful drugs, but it's not my decision whether or not you should vape. I don't know what's best for you, but I do know that in general, the best version of everybody's selves is not addicted to things outside of themselves or inside of themselves.

No addiction at all because by its definition, addiction is an emotional problem. That means that we're not able to process our emotions or we're not willing to process our emotions. So when we have an addiction, we can't possibly become the best version of ourselves because the best version of ourselves are always willing to confront uncomfortable emotions in a loving and compassionate way so that we can create what we want.

Everything that you really want in life, whether it's asking the guy or the girl out, whether it's the nice house or the fancy job or the career or the dream is an actor or the business, every single one of those things. The only thing between you and that thing is a little bit of discomfort and consistent action.

And if you're constantly vaping over discomfort, then guess what? You're not learning how to do walk towards your dreams. It's, I'm very pragmatic with my life coaching. I'm very practical. I'm very logical. There aren't many people in the world that you're going to confront on a daily basis who see the best version of yourself and try to fight for that.

You're going to be surrounded by people who want to make money off of you by getting you addicted to things. You're going to be surrounded by people and influences who want to focus on the negative and all the horrible things that are happening in the world. You're going to be surrounded by people who don't believe in your dreams.

And who are scared for you because they're scared for themselves. It is my job to go out into the world and show you that if you choose to voluntarily confront the things that you're scared of, the negative emotions. Then you can create the life that you want and I can see that version of yourself and everybody that I talk to.

I see that for them if they choose to take on that adventure. That is in fact the hero's journey is by voluntarily confronting the thing that scares the crap out of you and when you're addicted to things by definition, you're not confronting the emotions that are scary, that are uncomfortable, that have something to teach you.

Remember that the thing that you need the most is in the place you're least willing to look. When King Arthur wants to find the Holy Grail, he sends his men. To the place in the forest where it looks darkest to each one of them because it's in the darkest place of our, our mind, of our lives, of our fears, where we need to go.

It's actually in the fear that we find the meaning of our life. It's in the suffering and the fear. So when we numb over that suffering, when we try to avoid those emotions, when we Live in a life that's so small to avoid all the uncomfortable emotions that come with life. We ended up missing out on the best version of life that we could possibly have.

It's the ultimate cost. I don't care about the lung damage that comes along with vaping. I care about the psychological damage of who you could become that you're not able to become because you have a vape stick in your hand that you think is more important than your literal legacy. It's not about the vape.

It's not about the nicotine. Although that shit's designed to be as nicotine heavy and addictive as possible so that they can make a lot of money off of you to be addicted to something. That's not what I'm in it for. I'm in the best version of you because I want to see what you're capable of and so do you.

And the first step that I decided to take when I wanted to live the life that I deserved the most was getting rid of the addiction that was so obviously negatively affecting my life that I was using every single day. I almost got fired over it. I had lung pains. I lied to myself constantly, which was the ultimate disservice, right?

Because when you lie to yourself, you don't build a relationship with yourself. And when you do not have your own back and you do not build a good relationship with yourself, guess who doesn't go after their dreams? You don't. Because you're already beating yourself up for being addicted to something that you know, you shouldn't be.

And the only reason you're addicted to it is because you're not voluntarily confronting the things that scare you. And if you can't voluntarily confront the normal anxiety that comes with life, you need nicotine for that. Then guess what? When you go after your dreams and you experience one slight tiny sliver of anxiety or fear.

You're going to fold like a deck of cards. I almost said the plague and that doesn't make sense. I'm also, while I'm doing this podcast, I have a USB that I've randomly picked up and I'm waving it around like a baby stick, like a madman in my apartment. So, but I'm really passionate about life coaching and I'm really passionate about helping people to become who they can become because I want that for you.

I want that for me. All right. So this has been a lovely heart wrenching episode, hasn't it? So I'm going to leave you with this. Do yourself the favor of taking three to five minutes today to imagine the very best version of your life. In a perfect world, and I want to ask this question in that perfect version of your life, where you are the best version of yourself, for yourself, for the people around you, for your kids, for your spouse, for everyone, for your employees, whoever it is.

Are you holding a vape in your hand? Is that in your vision? And if it is, you wanna ask yourself why. And if it isn't, you wanna ask yourself why Thank you so much. It's not about the vaping. It's about you and I care about you. So I have a fantastic day. I will see you next week. Okay. So I actually figured I should throw this in at the end of this episode.

It seems like the right place. I do life coaching one on one. If you ever want to get on a call with me, I do free consults so you can just literally spend an hour with me talking about your life, who you could become, and then I'll give you a plan if you want to work with me. Just an offer if you want it.

If not, that's okay too. But I want to give you the option to work with me if you'd like to actually put this version of yourself in charge and make it a reality. Have a fantastic day. Guys, I'll see you next week.