I smoked for about 20 years and spent the last ten years in a cycle of trying to cut down, making an attempt to quit, getting frustrated and relapsing, smoking heavily, cutting down, making an attempt to quit, getting frustrated and relapsing...you get the idea.
I probably had about 20 quit attempts my last ten years as a smoker. I think 44 days was the longest quit, before this one. I had a lot that lasted less than a week or two.
I look at those short quits as well intended but poorly educated. I was always giving up something I thought I loved and was not focusing on the actual benefits to quitting. Once I started to educate myself about the benefits, it became easier. Allen Carr helped me a lot as did support groups like this one. Once I started to focus on the positives and realize that the negatives were temporary, it became easier for me to finally quit.