I recently saw a post on Facebook with a picture of a young girl, no more than 6 years old, holding a sign that said that her father told her that he’d quit smoking if she could get 1,000 “Likes” for that post.  The last thing she wrote on the sign was, “I love my dad!”

My first reaction was that this is wrong on so many levels.  The father has put his daughter in the position of being responsible for his trying to quit smoking.  If she doesn’t get the 1,000 “Likes” he won’t even try – and to her young mind, it will be her fault!  When he gets sick from smoking & possibly dies before she graduates high school, she may feel guilty because her post wasn’t good enough.

I thought, if the story is to be believed, the father has no intention of quitting.  He just wants to use this as an excuse to continue smoking.  As I said before, motivation has to come from within for it to be effective.  You would think that if he loved his daughter, he wouldn’t need any more “Likes” than her encouragement to quit!  If she gets the 1,000 “Likes” how will that translate into motivation for her dad?  Can dad call any of them to get encouragement when he wants to light up?  Though in my experience this kind of motivation is extremely weak, perhaps this will do the trick for this father, and he’ll feel compelled to keep his word.

Naturally, I was curious about how many “Likes” she did get, so I clicked through to see the original post.  It was originally posted in the Spring of 2014 and when I looked at it, there were over 5.9 million “Likes” and counting!!    I imagine this huge response was on behalf of the girl so she wouldn’t fail.  The ball was in the dad’s court.  Unfortunately, nowhere did I see any update that the dad had quit smoking.  I hope he has.  I hope he found the motivation he needed not from the millions of “Likes”, but from the look of love in his little girl’s eyes and his hope of living a healthier life and being part of her life for as long as possible.  I hope that dad has quit smoking for good so that he & his daughter can enjoy many, many Father’s Days together.

What motivation has helped you adopt healthier habits around smoking, eating or exercise?  Please share your experiences on this blog!

For Your Health! – Dr. Bob