The Best Ways to Break Bad Habits
While some people hate to admit it, people are not perfect. We know what we should be doing — like exercising, eating well, and getting plenty of sleep — but we don’t always match. And sometimes what starts out as an accidental oversight, oversight, or survival mechanism turns into a full-fledged bad habit. The good news is that it is possible to get rid of bad habits, and we are here to help you with that.
Define the behavior you want to change
Just thinking that you have “bad habits” is not enough: you need to know exactly what behavior you want to change. Robert Taibby, Licensed Clinical Social Worker at Psychology Today , writes:
“You have to stimulate the process of breaking the habit by thinking about concrete, doable behaviors — for example, not tossing your shoes in the living room, but putting them in the closet; eating not in front of the TV, but at the dining table; run for half an hour five days a week; send your boyfriend a welcome message once a day, not anything negative or negative to him. Drill the concrete. “
In other words, know exactly what you are going to work on.
Penalize yourself for every violation
Make the bad habit more painful and you can quit for good. Money is a great motivator, so you can use the “swearing” method or pay your friends $ 1 each time they catch you doing something you want to stop doing. It works the other way around: Reward yourself for kicking the habit every day. The 21Habit app rewards or fines you a dollar a day for 21 days of adopting a habit.
Understand what is causing your bad habits
Understanding how we make decisions is the key to getting rid of all kinds of bad habits, including those related to money . We often repeat bad habits without even realizing that we are doing them. However, there are five signals that usually contribute to the emergence of each bad habit, and knowing about them can help us learn what is behind these behaviors.
Go slow and make tiny changes
It takes time and effort to develop new good habits, but breaking the bad habits can be even more difficult. So be patient with yourself and instead of making drastic changes, try focusing on one habit and the smallest steps you can take to “trick your inner caveman.” For example, in food and diet, small changes, such as reducing one pack of sugar or replacing cream in coffee with skim milk, can make a big difference in the long term and can cause additional small but significant changes.
Spend a month thinking about your habit before you act.
You may be anxious to break this habit right now, but as mentioned above, it takes time. Before you start trying to change a habit, think about thinking it over for a month first , listing all the reasons you want to give up, writing down every time you catch yourself doing it, and so on. With this preparation, you can better prepare yourself to fight this habit.
Remind yourself in the future to avoid bad habits
Even with the best intentions, we fall into bad habits when our willpower dries up . You can promise, for example, that you only have two drinks when out with your friends, but completely forget about that promise as soon as you enter the bar. Try setting your calendar to remind you of your weakest points . The future, less hungover “I” will thank you.
Find the best reason to quit smoking
Yes, we know we shouldn’t smoke or eat fast food every day, but this awareness may not be enough to break the habit. As Elliot Berkman, Ph.D., director of the University of Oregon’s Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, told Time , “Even if you replace a“ bad ”habit with a better one, sometimes the original defect will have a stronger biological“ reward ”. than its substitute. ” So, for example, in addition to thinking that you should quit smoking because it will be better for your health, you can better motivate yourself to do so because it can help you become more active and enjoy hiking so like you couldn’t before. …
Change your environment
Over time, if you behave the same way in the same place, your surroundings can become a trigger – sometimes too subtle to be noticed. If you take smoke breaks in your office parking lot, the parking lot itself can be a reason to smoke. Change the environment even in the smallest way. The 20 second rule can also help: kick your bad habits 20 seconds longer. For example, move junk food to the back of the pantry, which is less accessible, and place some healthy snacks in front of it. In this scenario, you rely on your laziness to settle for what’s closest to your mouth.
Get rid of bad habits
Lifehacker alumnus Adam Duchis used a webcam to break his bad habits , recording every day why he wanted to get rid of them, and effectively coached himself on how to stop nail biting and other bad habits. Now, seven years after his original article, most people can easily shoot video with their phones, making this strategy even more affordable than before. This may sound a little odd at first, but it might work for you as well.
Be kind and patient with yourself
As we’ve already established, bad habits change doesn’t happen overnight, so try not to get upset or frustrated when the process takes time. As Tibby points out , it takes your brain time to form new connections and new patterns of behavior. Don’t punish yourself because it doesn’t happen overnight. Also, don’t berate yourself when you inevitably miss, and don’t use that as an excuse to quit smoking, adds Tybbie.
Review if you have a relapse of a bad habit
You will most likely have bad days. Failure is normal and we should expect it . Make a plan to get back on track and use relapse as a way to understand what happened and how to avoid it next time.
Create an If-Then plan
Habits are cycles that we repeat automatically. The signal starts our routine, we receive a reward from it, and then we repeat. An If-Then Plan can help you break this reward system, routine cues, and replace bad habits with good ones. Just remember to keep your plan as simple as possible . This flowchart can help you break the habit and create an If-Then plan.
Train yourself to think differently about your bad habits.
Even if we hate our habit, such as smoking or biting our nails, we tend to keep doing them because they bring us some kind of satisfaction or psychological reward. Catch yourself on any positive thoughts or feelings about your bad habits and rethink them to remind you of the negative aspects. In other words, it is good to think like a hater in this case.
This story was originally published on 3/28/15 and was updated on 10/8/19 to provide more complete and up-to-date information.