It is said that man is a creature of habit. It’s also said that we are just a combination of our good and bad habits. It makes sense then to focus on making sure we have the best habits possible so we can be the best people possible. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad habits out there practiced by a lot of people. Things like smoking, drinking, being late to everything and biting our nails are just a few of the common ones out there. I will talk about some easy steps we can take to get rid of our bad habits. But before that, it is important to realize that we don’t perform bad habits for no reason at all. While it can be said that smoking a cigarette has no health benefits whatsoever (which is entirely true), the fact is that if smoking is a habit for you it does indeed provide a benefit. And that is that smoking makes you feel good. It increases dopamine, the “feel good” hormone that gives you a burst happiness. Knowing that our bad habits fulfill a certain biological or social need makes it easier to recognize them and eliminate them altogether. Here are some initial steps to take in that process: Take a bad habit inventory. Decide on which bad habit you want to get rid of, and when you wake up start tallying how often you do it. The point here is not to get rid of the habit just yet, but to count how many times you do it a day and when and where you usually find yourself giving in. This will be essential information that you’ll need to break your habit. Find the trigger. It’s also important to note what exactly causes you to perform your habit. Maybe a certain event at work or even a certain smell makes you more likely to perform your habit. Whatever it is, no matter how weird it sounds, you need to find what makes you perform the bad habit. If you’re trying to eat less sugar and you’re tempted whenever you see ice cream in the freezer, just get rid of it and avoid the trigger in the first place. Find a replacement habit.Once you know when and why you perform your bad habit, then it’s time to find something that can replace it. If when you’re bored at work is when you find yourself wasting time on the internet, keep a work or home project you can access and work on that instead. In time, this new habit will replace your bad habit and you will have a new good habit! Surround yourself with positivity. If you find yourself around places or people that cause you to do your bad habit, it’s time to leave those things. Even if that means hanging out less with certain people, you need to do it in order to become a better person. Find people who are trying to do the same thing as you and hold each other accountable. The rising tide brings up all boats, so surround yourself with positive people and feed off of each other. Don’t beat yourself up. A lot of times our harshest criticis ourselves. You will most likely do your bad habit at one time or another. Failures and mistakes will happen, and that’s what makes you human. But it’s very important not to dwell on those failures and to keep moving on and focus on the next day. Before you know it you will have a huge list of good habits that can replace your bad ones.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 15:57:43 +0000
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