How to break a bad habit and replace it with a good one.

How to break a bad habit and replace it with a good one.

Bad habits interrupt your life and prevent you from achieve your goals. They risk your health mentally and physically and they waste your time and energy.

So is there anything you can do about it? Of course there is but first we have to know what the causes of bad habits are.

What causes bad habits?        

Most of bad habits are caused by two things: Stress and boredom.

Most of the time, bad habits are a way of dealing with stress and boredom, like biting your nails, drinking every weekend, overspending, wasting time on the internet; they can be a simple response to stress and boredom.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can teach new and healthy ways to deal with stress and boredom. Of course, sometimes the stress or boredom is caused by deeper issues but if you’re serious about making changes you will have success with your problem.

Is there something deeper that is causing your bad habit?

It is important that you recognize the causes of your bad habits to overcoming them.

You don’t eliminate a bad habit, you replace it.

All of the habits that you have right now — good or bad — are in your life for a reason and in some way these behaviors provide you a benefit.

Because bad habits provide some type of benefit in your life, it’s very difficult to simply eliminate them. Instead, it is necessary that you replace your bad habits with a healthier one that provides a similar benefit.

For example, if you smoke when you get stressed, then it’s a bad plan to “just stop smoking” when that happens. Instead, you should come up with a different way to deal with stress and insert that new behavior.

In other words, bad habits satisfy certain needs in your life and if you expect to cut out them without replacing them you’ll have certain needs that won’t be satisfy.

Do you know how to break a bad habit?

Here are some additional ideas for breaking your bad habits and thinking about the process in a new way.

Choose a substitute for your bad habit. 

It’s necessary that you have a plan for what you will do instead of your bad habit. What are you going to do when you get the urge to smoke? (Example: breathing exercises instead.) What are you going to do when Facebook is calling to you to procrastinate? (Example: write one sentence for work.)

Avoid the things that cause your bad habit.

It’s essential that you change your environment to break your bad habits by avoiding the things that cause them. For example if the first thing you do when you sit on the couch is pick up the TV remote, hide it in a different room.

Join forces with somebody. 

It’s crucial that you pair up with someone and quit the bad habit together. Knowing that someone else expects you to be better is a powerful motivator.

Visualize yourself succeeding. 

It’s necessary for you to visualize yourself enjoying your success and building a new identity whatever the bad habit is that you want to break. Like seeing you throwing away the cigarettes or buying healthy food or waking up early.

...