Ugh, why do bad habits tend to stick around? They slow us down, prevent us from achieving goals and they can even be detrimental to our health. They are a complete waste of your time and energy, yet they are so hard to break.
It is hard to break a bad habit but if you truly want to make the change, here are a couple of techniques you should try.
#1. Visualize your success
Breaking a bad habit is a mental game. If you can envision yourself making the changes to break a bad habit, you will have a better chance in succeeding.
#2. Shift your priorities
If you really want something to happen, you will make it happen. You just need to make it a priority!
#3. Throw fear out the door
Often fear of failure can prevent us from even trying to break a bad habit. You have to be okay with failure, because it will happen, but don’t give up! Don’t let failure define who you are. If you’re failing, that means you are struggling and putting up a good fight. Keep going!
#4. Find a replacement for your bad habit
The best way to combat a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit. If you’re trying to quit eating junk food, every time you feel the urge to eat sweets, eat a piece of fruit instead.
Love,
Karen
#5 Write a journal which tracks your progress on quiting the bad habits!
Have you tried this? Journals and self-feedback are so important!
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I have not actually! That is a great idea! Thanks for the idea :)
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Everyone has bad habits. Maybe you snack when you’re distressed, and drink too much when relaxing with friends. Or maybe you waste too much time on social media, and get into too unnecessary arguments with colleagues, friends, and family.
To change these bad habits, friends and therapists might say you simply have to make it your goal, and down the road – if you just try hard enough – you will get rid of them. However, extensive research in the science of motivation has shown that there is a wide disparity between having the goal of controlling one’s bad habits and actually doing so. This is true for bad habits relating to all domains of life including health, work, and one’s social life. So what can you do to reduce these gaps?
In my research in the U.S. and Germany on the self-regulation of goal pursuit, I discovered that people have to make plans on how to implement their goals. The most effective plans are those that specify when, where and how you want to act on your goals by using an “if-then” format. Take drinking too much in the company of your friends as an example. In the “if” part of the plan, you identify the critical situation that usually triggers your bad habit. Perhaps the trigger is being offered a drink by your friends. In the “then” part, you specify an action that can halt accepting the offer such as responding to it by saying that you prefer a glass of water today. And then you link the “if” and the “then” parts together by making an “if-then” plan: “If on Friday evening my friends offer me a drink, then I will answer: I prefer to have a glass of water today!”
Sound too simple? Well, an endless line of studies published in peer-reviewed journals conducted with children, adults, and old to very old people around the world have shown that “if-then” plans significantly increase the rate of goal attainment. This is true for goals in the health, achievement and interpersonal domain, for people from different cultural and social backgrounds, and even for people who have problems with self-regulation in general (e.g., children with ADHD, people who suffer from addictions, frontal lobe patients).
How can simple “if-then” plans be so effective in achieving behavior change? In laboratory experiments, we discovered that these plans make performing the behavior specified in the “then” part much easier when the critical situation is encountered. The person no longer has to tell herself that she wants to break a bad habit and then try hard to do so. Rather, encountering the critical situation specified in the “if” part triggers the pre-planned response in a fast, effortless, and incidental manner. Since the “if-then” plan delegates the initiation of the planned response to the specified critical situation, it is taken out of the hands of the person who – as a consequence – no longer has to play the role of the willful “controller” of her actions. Instead, she now makes a pre-programmed, almost automatic response.
Related: These 3 Food Myths Could Be Hurting Your Health, According to a Stanford Nutrition Professor
It is not difficult to learn to make good “if-then” plans. You only have to detect the personal critical situations that trigger your bad habits, and you have to identify those behaviors that you can and want to perform instead of the habitual ones. Gabriele Oettingen, a colleague at New York University, has developed an App called WOOP (Wish-Outcome-Obstacle-Plan) that guides you through a number of steps helping you to specify the “if” parts and the “then” parts of the “if-then” plans needed.So if you do not want to fall prey to your bad habit of checking emails whenever there is a free moment, just make the following “if-then” plan: If I find a moment of quiet time tonight, then I will download the WOOP App.
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wow! Thank you for this extensive comment. I think I will download the WOOP app and check it out. If I download the app then I will break my bad habits? LOL worth the try. Again thanks for taking the time to write all of this!
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such an inspirational post
i really like positive thinkings like this that make the world a better place to live
thanks for the tips hope to read more from you
with love your venezuelan friend Jorge AKA takeru
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thanks for stopping by to read! HI from california! -Karen :)
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So true! It's hard sometimes to get rid of them when we get stuck in a unhealthy habit loop. Good points you made though!👌🏻💫 I once read somewhere that replacing an old with a new habit takes 21 days haha not sure if it's true or not, maybe you know:)! Thanks for sharing gorgeous!!💙😘
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I think I read the same book somewhere too! :) It does take time! All great achievements take time and effort. Thanks for stopping by! :)
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@karensuestudios. Thanks for the spirit of brother. I am very motivated with your writing. I just used steemit.
Please guide my sister in using steemit.
@nurhayati from Indonesia.
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Number four has always worked with me, replacing one habit with another. It's still pretty tough though! Great article.
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thank you! :) Yes it is! But we got this!
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But what if I don't even know about bad habbits that I might have?
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First step, find them! :) But you are pretty amazing already. Don't know if you need to change much at all! Love you!
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Cool post - thanks for writing!
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HAHHA will be quizzed later 😂
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Great tips, very helpful. And I agree with you, breaking a bad habit is a mental game.
:)
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Yes it's hard, but possible.
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well written tips, hope that many will read and learn, thanks.
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thank you!
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welcome, always and more success
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Lovely advice @karensuestudios. I need to resteem this
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AWW thanks for the resteem! :)
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Thats a great tips you shared..thanks for cool tips
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aww you're welcome!
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Karen, Great tips that fit what I tell my life coaching students. Looking forward to see more wisdom and posts. Upvoted and resteemed..
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aww thanks for the comment and resteem! :) Life coaching huh? that's pretty awesome!
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A great post and timely for me as I try to change the many bad habits with my diet and loose the excess weight I have gained since quitting smoking
On day 3 and doing well but this post really helped me reaffirm my decision and actions
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aww keep going! You got this!
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I will do it just need to stay focused and positive
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exactly, to break away the bad habit is the only way to change them with good ones. thanks for the great posting. love and greetings
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thanks for stopping by to read :)
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nice post m frend goood luck
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thanks
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