Lesson 6: Quit smoking (as often as you need to)

For all of Obama's physical credentials, he's carried around the ultimate health taboo, smoking, for most of his adult life. And he inhaled, all right. Then word came that he'd quit smoking.

"There wasn't some dramatic moment," he says. "Michelle had been putting pressure on me for a while. I was never really a heavy smoker. Probably at my peak I was smoking 7 or 8 a day. More typical was 3. So it wasn't a huge challenge with huge withdrawal symptoms. There have been a couple of times during the campaign when I fell off the wagon and bummed one, and I had to kick it again. But I figure, seeing as I'm running for President, I need to cut myself a little slack."

He does have advice for people, like him, who are wrestling with the dependency. "Eliminate certain key connections -- that first cigarette in the morning, or after a meal, or with a drink. If you can eliminate those triggers, that should help."