Bad habits disrupt your life and keep you from achieving your goals. They endanger your emotional and physical wellbeing. They also squander your time and energy. So why do we continue to do them? Is there something in particular that you can do about it? These behaviours may not appear harmful on the surface, but we frequently go too far, converting what may be considered a great trait into a poisonous habit.
You’ll need to take a few basic measures to unlearn your undesirable behaviours if you want to get rid of them. Continue reading to find out what these actions are and how you may begin applying them in your own life.
Understanding What Leads to Bad Habits
Generally, the major contributors to sinking in a world of endless bad habits lie within the following aspects;
Stress and Boredom
The majority of the time, poor habits are merely a means to cope with stress and boredom. Anything from chewing your nails to going on a spending spree to binge drinking all weekend to squandering time on social media may be an easy way to cope with stress and boredom. You may, however, learn healthier techniques to cope with stress and boredom, which you should then replace your harmful behaviours with.
Of course, quite often, the tension or boredom on the outside results from underlying problems. These are difficult topics to contemplate, but you must be honest with yourself if you’re ready to make changes. Recognising the sources of your harmful behaviours is essential for breaking them.
Replacing vs Eliminating a Bad Habit
Each of your habits, good and bad, has a purpose to play in your life. These activities help you in some manner, even if they are harmful in other ways.
Sometimes the advantage is biological, such as with medication. It can be emotional at times, such as when you stay in a poor relationship. And, in many circumstances, your undesirable behaviour is a simple stress-reduction technique.
These “benefits” or arguments extend to minor harmful behaviours as well. For example, accessing your email as soon as you switch on your workstation may help you feel more connected. Reading those emails simultaneously reduces your efficiency, divides your concentration, and overpowers you with worry.
But it keeps you from thinking you’re “missing out,” so you repeat the process. Because negative habits bring some form of value to your life, it is pretty difficult to just eradicate them.
Instead, you must replace negative behaviour with a new one that gives a comparative advantage. In other words, negative habits have a purpose in your life. As a result, replacing your harmful behaviours with a healthier practice that satisfies the same demand is preferable.
How to Get Rid of Bad Habits
1. Choosing the Substitute
When confronted with the stress or boredom that triggers your negative behaviour, you must anticipate how you will behave. Whatever it may be and however much you might be dealing with, you must have a strategy for what you’ll do in place of your harmful habit. For example, consider what actions you might take when Facebook beckons you to waste time. Consider writing one phrase for work.
2. Remove the Triggers
If you smoke while drinking, don’t go to the pub. If you consume cookies while they’re still in the house, toss them all away. If the first action you take when sitting on the sofa is to pick up the TV remote, conceal it in a separate room’s drawer. Avoiding the items that produce negative habits will make it simpler for you to break them.
3. Accountability Partnerships
Join forces with someone else and stop together. You and your partner may keep one another accountable and enjoy your successes together. Understanding that others expect you to do better is a great incentive. Please avoid collaborating with someone who triggers the bad habit. In these trying times, proper hygiene can play a huge role in this partnership, so consider buying hand sanitisers for when you need to interact physically with both your partner and other people or things.
4. Hang Around People With the Lifestyle You Wish to Embrace
You don’t have to say goodbye to your close pals, but don’t neglect the effect of making new ones. Find people who live a lifestyle you would like to pick up, including your habits to replace the bad habit(s).
5. Visualize Success
Consider quitting smoking, buying nutritious food, or getting up earlier. Whatever negative behaviour you want to quit, envision yourself destroying it, smiling, and revelling in your victory. Consider creating a new identity for yourself.
6. Prepare for Failure
We all make mistakes from time to time. Instead of beating yourself up over a mistake, prepare for it. We all stray off course; what distinguishes great achievers from rest is that they get back on track fast.
The Bottom Line
If you’re searching for the first stride to break negative habits, we recommend beginning with awareness. Awareness will show you how to effect change. After which, you can embrace a pattern that you can follow through with, and the rest is as discussed in the article above.
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With that said, all the best in overcoming these bad habits!