How Can You Break Your Bad Habits?

Habits are patterns of behavior that you do repeatedly like autopilot. Breaking the patterns of behavior is the key to breaking the habits.

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If you want to break your bad habits, here are some steps you can follow to get started.

Define your why to break bad habits

If you want to break your bad habits, first of all, you have to define you WHY. To make any change especially habits, it takes persistent effort and patience. You have to know it clearly why you are going to make a change in your habits. It will work as a driving force.

Identify the triggers

Socrates said, “Know thyself.” You have to know the triggers of your bad habits. You have to go deep and identify the triggers. Trigger, behavior and reward are related. Suppose you smoke when you are under stress. Stress is your trigger, you smoke and that’s the behavior, after smoking, you feel better and that’s the reward.

Try to avoid the triggers of your bad habits. Do something else or focus on other things at that time to avoid the triggers.

Practice mindfulness

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Sometimes we do things without thinking about it because it is our habits. Practice mindfulness and be aware of what you are doing. Take deep breaths and concentrate your mind.

Be curious to learn what is exactly happening at that time. For example, you get angry easily and yell at your kids or spouse. Now think carefully what you get out of it. You feel bad later after yelling at your spouse or kids. Your kids and spouse are sad, and feel bad as well because of your bad habits. You want to be happy and make your family happy, right? Then you have to break your bad habits.

The moment you are fully aware of it, you will try your best not to do that again. And you consciously make your effort to stay calm when you feel the triggers of getting angry or you do something to avoid the triggers.

Take small step to break your bad habits

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You find that you have many bad habits and you have to change them all. Do not try to break all bad habits at once and beat yourself up. Pick one bad habit and break it down into small steps. Take one small step and move forward so that you can achieve your ultimate goals. If you fail, don’t give up. Figure out how it happened. It takes time. Try again. You have to be persistent and make your effort to break bad habits.

Replace your bad habits

It is easier to replace your bad habits with a different and healthier one. You want to change your bad habits. Just replace your bad habits with good ones. When you make a little change in your old habits and move towards better ones, you will find it easier to do that.

Reward yourself

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You are used to doing something as autopilot and all you want is to make a change on that. It is easier said than done. When you are successful to break one bad habit, reward yourself. You deserve it. When you reward yourself, it will send signal to your brain. And you will be inspired to embrace good habits.

Thank you so much for reading this so far. If you want to add something or express your thoughts, please comment bellow. I’m looking forward to connecting with you.