3 Steps to Kick Any Bad Habit You Have
Hey Angels and Alphas,
People are habitual, pattern-loving creatures.
Everyone has their habits! Maybe yours is drinking coffee in the morning, staying up late, or smoking. Everything you do consistently is a habit. Going to the gym is a habit for most of you.
But going to the gym is a good habit, a productive one. When it comes to our more negative habits, such as maybe smoking or binge-watching Netflix, they’re not logically doing any good to us.
According to experts, habits take time to develop and must be broken the same way they were formed. But to learn how to break any bad habit, we must first answer one very important question.
Why is kicking a bad habit so hard?
Sometimes, the original vice will have a bigger biological “reward” than its replacement, even if you replace the “bad” habit with a beneficial one. Your brain, for instance, is aware that chewing gum is not nicotine, therefore it won’t have the same euphoric effect as smoking a cigarette. The value of having an inner motivation becomes clear in this situation.
Intellectually, we are aware that giving up smoking is excellent for our health and that reducing the number of burgers we eat may aid in weight loss. However, the motivation for changing a behavior must be particular and personal. For example, quitting smoking permanently may allow you to spend more time with your family, while eating well may give you the energy you need for the outdoor activities you used to like.
Though challenging, breaking a harmful habit has advantages. And if you’re prepared to change, I’m willing to support you in taking the first step toward quitting that one terrible habit you’ve had for so long!
The first step – making a commitment.
You can’t imagine how powerful a commitment becomes when you write it down and look at it every day. I want you to sit down, grab a pen, and vent out precisely what your goal is. Make your list of “reasons why I should stop doing this” as long as you can.
The second step – creating a plan.
Many people get stuck on that commitment stage, and never really take action toward breaking their bad habit. Once you have your goal written down, write down exactly how you plan on achieving it. You need your plan to be specific, measurable, and timed. If you want to break that bad habit, you need to know exactly how you’re going to break that bond between you two and set a deadline for when that has to happen.
The third step – find your triggers.
This is the most crucial part of your habit-breaking journey, and it’s going to help you when creating your plan. Every habit has a starting point – an event that sets off the alarm in your brain. If you start your day off with a cigarette and a coffee every day, pretty soon you won’t be satisfied with just either. Coffee can become a trigger for smoking and vice-versa. Once you become aware of these triggers, their effectiveness starts falling apart.
Keep in mind that finding triggers is the first step in creating a habit. The first step in overcoming your repetitive habits is to recognize the triggers that lead to them.
Track your habit for a few days to determine whether it exhibits any trends.
Note details such as:
- When does the trigger conduct occur?
- When in the day?
- How does it make you feel at the time?
- Exist other participants?
- Does it follow another event immediately?
Let’s assume you want to cut back on staying up late. After observing your behavior for a few days, you notice that if you start watching TV or talking to friends after supper, you tend to stay up later. However, if you read or go for a walk, you can naturally start falling asleep earlier.
Remember – kicking bad habits is supposed to be difficult. Stay on course, get rid of your triggers one by one, and make that commitment written. Pretty soon, you’ll have the power to kick out all the bad habits you never even realized you had!
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