Breaking Bad Habits

My recent New Year resolutions made me realise how difficult it is to break bad habits. By nature we are creatures of habit and somethings are really quite difficult to give up – even if we know they are not good for us. This is a practical guide to breaking bad habits and creating lasting changes to our lifestyle.

1. Be Clear you want to Break a Bad Habit.

One problem is that we are often caught in two minds about whether we want to break a habit or not. Part of us wants to give up drinking coffee, but, the other part really quite likes it. If we are half hearted or undecided we will never be successful. If we really want to break a bad habit, we have to be very clear about why we want to break it and why. If we are clear in our mind about the benefits of giving up a bad habit, we will then have a greater resolution to do so. If you want to give up smoking, why not write down your top 5 reasons why you want to give it up. Write them down on a postcard and keep it in a permanent place. This constant reminder will increase our determination and resolve.

2. Set Yourself Goals

If you tell people that you intend to give something up, then it helps to clarify your target. If you decide to break a bad habit but keep it to yourself, it is much easier to say to yourself ‘well, OK, I’ll start again tomorrow’. Our friends and family can play an important role in encouraging us and helping to create the right situation. For example, if we wish to give up eating too much chocolate, we can make sure our family don’t keep trying to tempt us. Also, when we tell others, it becomes a matter of pride to live up to our promises.

3. Create Good habits

Breaking bad habits can be seen as a negative thing – we need to give up some pleasure or habit we are used to. Sometimes it is more successful if we focus on creating good habits to replace our bad habits. For example, if we have a bad habit of eating junk food; focus on creating a good habit of eating healthy food. Get joy from buying healthy organic foods which will be a powerful antidote to the temptation to eat junk foods.

4. Persevere

We cannot expect to change human nature overnight. If at first we don’t succeed, never give up. Don’t waste time feeling guilty, but instead just reassert you intention to try again. Steady perseverance is the key. This is especially important for habits like excessive worry or anger. It takes time to overcome this kind of habit. Rather than expecting an immediate change we should seek to make gradual process in reducing our bad habits.

5. If You can’t do it for Yourself, do it for Others

A very powerful motivation for breaking bad habits is to try to think of others whom you love. Maybe we have got used to becoming angry at the drop of a hat. We may prefer to give up our propensity to anger, but we lack the motivation to do it. However, if we become aware how much our habit effects those around us then we will try much harder to be able to do it. I know quite a few people who really struggled to give up smoking, but, one of the main motivations is they didn’t want to set a bad example to their children.

There is a great sense of satisfaction in finally giving up a bad habit. Most things in life worth getting are not straight forward. There is no magic pill we can take to give up bad habits, but, the effort of giving up bad habits can be very useful for other aspects of our life. Good luck!

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