Unhealthy habits can be hard to break.
Regardless of the habit, destructive behaviors keep you away from the life you desire. Here are ways to help you break an unhealthy habit.
The things in your life that keep you from achieving your goals are rarely because other people are stopping you or putting obstacles in your way. The reasons you do not achieve your goals are because you are sabotaging yourself. You think you cannot do whatever it is that you would like to do. This can be comforting, but the thought really prevents you from achieving your goals and becoming your best self. Your habits can prevent you from growing into the person you want to be. I suspect you realize that you need to break or modify some habits to achieve your goals so let’s talk about how to break a habit.
Negative thinking is a normal part of life that we all deal with. Limiting negative self-talk, however, can improve one’s life and experiences.
Unhealthy habits can have a negative impact on your physical and mental health
These habits leave you feeling as if you don’t have enough control over your impulses. While change is frequently challenging, having a plan can make it easier.
This step-by-step plan can help you eliminate any bad habit:
1. Monitor the habit for a week.
Make note of the times you’re likely to engage in the habit. Maybe you only smoke around certain friends. Perhaps you bite your nails when you’re stressed or bored. At any rate, identify under which circumstances your habit is most likely to rear its ugly head.
2. You may think this documentation is intimidating.
It is not. This is just your brain telling you not to do this activity because it does not want to change. YOU are in control, not your unconscious impulses. If you really rebel at the idea of looking at your WHY, you need to ask yourself “Why?”. Isn’t the idea to stop a habit you tell yourself you do not like? See the next point.
3. Find out why.
Your habit is satisfying some need. You’re gaining a benefit or you wouldn’t be exhibiting the behavior at all. Really.
Are you doing X simply without any reason whatsoever? I doubt that. At some point in time, you started your habit because it was useful. The habit may have outlived its usefulness. Understanding what you get by continuing the habit helps. Figuring out the positive aspects of your habit will help you understand it. Once you understand it, you can begin to change it.
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4. Develop a substitute behavior.
Find a more acceptable alternative that satisfies the same need that was being met by the old habit. If your habit helps you to deal with stress, what are some healthy alternatives? Yoga? Another exercise? Deep breathing? Meditating? Singing? Watching a comedy? Calling a friend?
What could you do instead that isn’t harmful? Better yet, what could you do instead that would be healthy for you? Start substituting the new habit for the old one. It will take a fair amount of attention at first, but begin intentionally substituting the new behavior each time you would automatically use the old behavior. It’s likely to be challenging, but with a positive focus, you CAN do it. Remind yourself WHY you want to change your behavior.
5. Measure your progress.
Keep track of how many times you engage in the old habit and how many times you engage in the new habit. Progress can be difficult to determine without measurement; if you don’t know where you are, how will you know if you’re moving forward or backward? By measuring your progress, you accomplish two things:
You get feedback so you know how successful you are.
You have the added motivation of seeing your progress.
6. Be patient.
Take one step at a time. Complete perfection is unreasonable, but a little perfection can work wonders. Don’t be upset when the inevitable slip occurs while you’re breaking your old habit. Just examine the situation dispassionately and determine a better solution for the next time. You still gain a lot by decreasing the frequency of the bad habit.
7. Focus on having one perfect day today.
The idea of one day without the habit may seem quite reasonable – and doable – to you. A string of perfect days is a lot easier than trying to be perfect for an extended period.
8. For tough habits, a perfect hour might work better for your short-term goal.
Depending on your habit, you might want to adopt something that comes from AA: You will only think in terms of using your good habit and ignoring your bad habit for one hour. Once you have done that, then practice using your good habit for two hours. Keep this up and you will eventually establish your good habit.
9. Forget the idea of changing your habits all at once.
Think back over your life. How many times have you decided to make a change and you made that change right then and there? Yeah, that is what I thought. Give yourself permission to take the time you need to change your habit. You spent some time developing the bad habit; you need time to develop the good habit.
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I hope you found at least one tip that you can start today. Here is another tip: Pick one of these tips and decide, right now, that you can do it. Think about how much that bad habit is causing you trouble and pain. Think about how good you will feel knowing you are making better choices. Recognize that you WILL slip up, but you can just get back into your new habit. Decide that this will work. Believe it will work. You will be surprised at the results, I think.
I hope you found this useful. If you did, please share it with a friend.
If you have any thoughts on this, please leave a comment. Tell us about your successes!
Valerie
update 4 October 2023