Or every time i have a cigarette, I kick a brick wall with no shoes on. If i was consistent with this for a long time, would it work?

Totally. The wall will fall over in 20 years, tops!

The actual answer is maybe - it works for some but not others. A common point of failure is that people just train themselves to cheat and take the reward anyway. I'm not sure what the response rate is when full compliance to the reward schedule is assumed.