Why is it so hard to make changes?
Why can’t someone stop smoking if they know it’s bad? Around 70% of smokers would love to quit—people who abuse drugs and alcohol struggle to quit. Many of us are overweight and could lose weight if we ate right and exercised more. Why don’t you do it?
Bad habits can disrupt your life and make it challenging to achieve your goals. They can cause damage to your mental and physical health. They also waste your time, energy and money.
Hence, why are we continuing to do them? Is there anything you can do to change it?
Sometimes people know that they need change but resist change. We all have bad habits. Some of us may bite our nails or break our knuckles. We may interrupt others often or procrastinate. These bad habits can be hard to break. Don’t worry! They can be corrected.
What is a Bad Habit?
A habit is something you do regularly or often.
A bad habit is something harmful, unpleasant, or unfavourable that you engage in often or frequently.
Bad habits:
Two things are responsible for most of your bad habits:
Boredom and stress.
Bad habits are often a way to deal with boredom and stress. You can respond to boredom and stress by doing anything from biting your nails, shopping too much, or wasting time online.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You can learn new, healthier ways to cope with boredom and stress.
Sometimes, the stress and boredom you feel on the surface may be caused by deeper issues. Although these issues are difficult to consider, you must be open with yourself to make fundamental changes in your life.
Is there a belief or reason that is causing the bad habits? Are there deeper reasons, such as fear, events, or limiting beliefs, causing you to keep on to bad habits?
It is important to recognize the root causes of bad habits in order to overcome them.
How to Get Rid of Bad Habits
Bad habits can be detrimental to your mental, physical, emotional, and social health. Some bad habits are easier to break than others.
It’s not enough to get rid of a bad habit; you also need to replace it.
Every habit you have, good and bad, is there for a reason. These behaviours are beneficial in some ways, even if they are harmful in others.
Sometimes, the benefit is biological, as with drugs or smoking. Sometimes, it’s emotional; In many cases, your bad behaviour is an easy way to deal with stress. You might bite your nails, pull your hair, tap your foot or clench your jaw. Here are some bad habits that you should stop doing:
1. Stress eating
2. Nail biting
3. Naysayers hanging out
4. Being with people who don’t appreciate you
5. Smoking
6. Alcoholism is a problem.
7. Eating Junk Food (Including Diet Soda)
8. Too much red meat consumption is a problem
9. Too Much TV
10. Being Late
11. Negative Relationships
12. Leaving things to the last minute
13. Focusing on the negative
How to Break Bad Habits
Be prepared for discomfort.
You can lose weight, improve your nutrition, or make lifestyle changes to help you feel more comfortable.
We resist discomfort. It is our inability to accept discomfort that prevents us from moving forward.
Find a replacement for your bad habit.
It is important to plan in advance how you will react when you are faced with boredom or stress. What will you do if you feel the need to smoke? You can try breathing exercises instead. What will you do if Facebook calls you to procrastinate? Example: Write one sentence for work. No matter what it is, it would be best if you had a plan of action for how you will deal with bad habits and replace them.
Avoid temptation
If you like to eat too many cookies, you should throw away all the cookies you have. You should not pick up the TV remote as your first action when sitting down on the couch. Instead, put it in a separate room and hide it. Avoid bad habits and make it easier to get rid of them.
Read More: Building Self Discipline
Read More: What is Delayed Gratification and why is it Important?
Read More: How to Increase Your Mental Focus
Establish incentives
You can use incentives to motivate yourself to do difficult things. You can offer symbolic rewards for every positive behavior you exhibit, such as a money jar.
You can also use it to help you get back into good habits if you make a mistake along the way. It will increase your chances of continuing in the right direction.
Get together with someone.
Partner up with someone to quit together. You can both hold each other responsible and celebrate your successes together. It is powerful to know that others expect you to do better.
Imagine yourself as a success.
Visualize yourself quitting smoking, buying healthy food, or getting up earlier. Whatever bad habit you want to get rid of, visualize yourself smiling and enjoying the victory.
To overcome negative self-talk, use the word “but”.
It’s easy to make excuses for bad behaviour and judge yourself for it. It’s easy for you to judge yourself when you make mistakes or slip up.
When that happens, end the sentence by adding “but “…”
- “I’m overweight and out of shape but I could get in shape in a few months.”
CONCLUSION
Your goal, in the beginning, is not to feel guilty or judge yourself. It is essential to recognize when and how often it occurs. Recognize the problem and try to solve it. You can then start to implement these ideas and stop your bad habits.
It takes effort and time to break bad habits, but perseverance is the key. Many people who break bad habits fail many times before they succeed. It’s possible not to achieve success immediately, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to.
