There are countless self-help books about changing bad habits and building good ones, many of which have even become bestsellers. Most of us want to improve ourselves to be happier, healthier, and better people. However, while we often have the best intentions, we usually fall back into habits that hurt our well-being. It’s not easy, but as countless books indicate, there are ways to break bad habits for good. The process starts with understanding and identifying bad habits and flows from there.
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What Is a Bad Habit?
A bad habit is an automatic behaviour that negatively impacts your well-being. A habit typically becomes bad when you stop doing it in moderation or on occasion and it becomes an ingrained part of your routine, leading to negative outcomes. Keeping up with the latest arrivals in slot gaming or buying yourself a new skincare product or article of clothing isn’t inherently bad, but when you do this at the expense of your finances and well-being, it crosses the line from a fun and healthy outlet to being a bad habit.
Five Steps to Breaking a Bad Habit
Understanding the difference between fun and healthy outlets and bad habits is critical to changing your habits. Enjoying things in moderation is part of a healthy, well-rounded life. But if you find you’ve moved beyond this, it’s time to implement the following steps to return to a healthy balance you feel good about.
1. Identify the Habit and Its Triggers
To break the habit, you need to identify it—whether it’s overspending, biting your nails to the point of discomfort or bleeding, eating poorly, or not exercising. Take the time to identify the habit or habits that impact your health and wellness. Once you’ve done this, you can also start to see what might trigger you to participate in the habit in the first place, like stress, feeling poorly about yourself, or being in an unhealthy environment. You may want to journal or track your habits over a week or two to identify triggers or patterns around a bad habit. Doing this will help you better understand why you engage in the behaviour so that you can break it.
2. Set a Goal and Create a Plan
Once you have identified a habit or habits, you can build goals and create a plan for how to effectively reach them. Most experts recommend starting small and focusing on one habit at a time. For instance, if you’re trying to reduce your screen time, rather than going cold turkey, look to eliminate reaching for your phone at a designated time each day or to slowly reduce your screen time by a half hour each week. Remember, a little progress goes a long way.
A few other considerations to reach a goal could be to change your environment. If you’re a chronic procrastinator, head to a nearby café rather than sitting down to try to work at your usual spot. The change in scenery can help jump-start productivity. You can also look at replacing a bad habit with a positive one. For instance, if you’re trying to quit smoking and know that the craving hits hard after work, try reaching for a nutritious snack, like an apple, or going out for a walk instead.
Another helpful way to reach goals is to ask for help or support from friends and family. You can ask them to join you in breaking a habit or to be an accountability partner who helps you monitor your progress and stay on track to meet your goal.
There are many different ways to create a plan to break a bad habit. Take the time to explore different options and see which resonates with you. This will help you find success.
3. Practice Mindfulness
As you implement your plan, practice mindfulness. This will help you recognise when you start or want to engage in your bad habit so that you can take steps to change it. It can also help you identify how you feel about your bad habit compared to when you push through to break it or replace it, giving you tools to help you in the future when you struggle to resist an urge.
4. Track Your Progress and Celebrate Wins
Just as setting goals in the workplace or school involves tracking your progress, so too should your goals for breaking bad habits. Take the time to check your progress and consider using a habit tracker or journaling to assist you. This will allow you to see if your plan needs to be re-evaluated and help you celebrate your wins, no matter how small, both of which support you in breaking your bad habits for good.
5. Be Prepared for Setbacks
When breaking a habit, you’ll inevitably encounter setbacks. Habits take a long time to form, so it’s natural that they’ll take time to change. Rather than being upset with yourself if you accidentally engage in the habit you’re trying to break, have a plan in place for how to deal with it. For instance, you could remind yourself of how good it feels when progressing towards replacing a bad habit with a good one. You could also revisit why you want to break your habit in the first place. These things empower you to stick with your plan and reach your goal. Remember, a mistake (or two or few) doesn’t undo all the work you’ve already put in. Just make sure they are the rare exception rather than the norm.
Final Thought: Be Patient and Kind to Yourself
Changing and breaking your habits is not an easy task, so it’s essential that you are patient with yourself and treat yourself with kindness. Giving yourself a hard time for slipping up and falling back into an old habit or for engaging in the habit in the first place isn’t a productive way to help yourself improve. Instead, remind yourself of all your accomplishments and turn to tools and practices that will support you. Changing habits is something many people struggle with, but it is possible to do, including for you.
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