This has grown to be a very interesting (and surprisingly respectful) discussion. I originally posted this question as I had quit smoking relatively easily. My "program" had been to stop putting cigarettes in my mouth and lighting them. It took many, many attempts but finally took. I suffered through the uncomfortable withdrawal and period of establishing a new habit, but eventually made it and never looked back.
As to quitting drinking, I was first introduced to AA and could never get it to work for me. I prayed as hard and as sincerely as possible but the obsession and compulsion was never lifted. Eventually, I started to look elsewhere for alternative approaches. However, the more approaches I examined to more confused I got and the easier it became to keep drinking while investigating the next method. I was trying to cobble together bits from several programs and find the magic formula.
The breakthrough came when I was reading Allen Carr's book. I was several chapters in when I was suddenly overcome with the feeling that I just couldn't read one more poorly written book hoping it had the magic formula. Ultimately, my sobriety was going to rely on me making a decision to quit drinking and sticking to that decision. I still had to go through the withdrawal period and I am still going through the discomfort of adopting a new habit. There are a few tools I can learn to help during this period and beyond, which is why I keep reading posts. Mostly, however, it was helpful to see that there were many people who did get sober by simply quitting drinking and that that way was open to me as well.