Let's face it, all of us have our
own bad habits. We may bite our nails or crack our knuckles. Some of us
interrupt people often or procrastinate. All these nasty habits are
hard to break. But have no fear! This article will teach you how to get
rid of your bad habits.
How to Get Rid of Bad Habits
Steps
- Realize habits have consequences and rewards.
Frequent practices of your habits, good or bad, have a long term effect
on you whether you like it or not. Negative Ex. A few cigarettes over a
few months means nothing compared to tens thousand of cigarettes used
over your life time. Positive Ex. Focusing yourself on personal
development and building your social circle.
- Recognize the bad habit you want to break. Knowing and understanding the habit will help you to gain control of it. If you don't believe you have a bad habit or you don't get why "some things" just keep happening to you over and over, get feedback from people outside your normal social circle. Others may recognize patterns that you misconstrue as "that's just how I am."
- Decide how serious you are about breaking the habit. If you are truly committed, you will be able to achieve your goal.
- Track when you do the habit. Perhaps keep a journal handy.
- Write down where and why you do the habit. Writing increases your awareness of the habit.
- Think about what you wrote. What does this habit do for you?
- Think about a healthy habit that you could replace your bad habit with. Write down simple alternative and choose one you would like to practice.
- Catch yourself doing the bad habit and stop yourself. Practice the healthy habit instead.
- Practice this exercise weekly or as often as you want. Practice will gradually turn a good behaviour into a habit
- Get support from others. Tell them what they can do to help you. This will make it easier to achieve your goals.
- Be patient. You cannot break a habit overnight! They are so automatic, sometimes you may not even realize you are doing it!
- Be kind to yourself. Beating yourself up over accidentally doing the bad habit will not help you.
- Pretend your crush is watching you. Would you bite your nails or crack your knuckles around that special someone?
- Read about your habit. The hard realities of your habit and its consequences can compel you not to do it. For example, Wikipedia articles often have a "Health Risks" section of various practices and substances. It also helps by giving you a sense of clarity. You need to see the big picture, the bad and the good.
- culled from WikiHow
