Proven Ways To Kick Those Bad Habits To The Curb
Everyone has habits. They are the things we do on a regular basis, often without much hesitation. Sometimes they are healthy habits, such as going to the gym a few times a week or drinking green tea after waking up in the morning. In other cases, however, they can be unhealthy or ‘bad’ habits, such as nail biting, smoking, drinking a little too much when stressed, continually snacking, and eating a lot of fast food. Unfortunately, habits are quite challenging to break, especially if they are long-standing ones. But it is not impossible to break bad habits. Continue reading for some of the proven ways to kick your bad habits to the curb and never see them again!
Become Mindful Of The Habit
When trying to break a bad habit, it is essential to become more mindful of the habit in question. Try asking yourself what you are doing. Wonder why you are doing it. When did you start doing (now and when the adverse formed) it? You will learn how to be aware of the indicators when you are about to engage in your habit (e.g., what induces a cigarette craving). Thus, when you wish to break the pattern, being mindful of the habit gives you the ability to stop yourself before you do it again.
Don’t Instead Of Can’t
Often when someone is trying to change their habits, they will tell others that they can’t do something. Specifically, if someone is trying to avoid fast food, they will often say “I can’t eat fast food.” Unfortunately, this is the wrong approach when it comes to breaking bad habits. A research study from the Journal of Consumer Research indicated when presented with both a chocolate bar and a healthy granola bar, sixty-one percent of those who said “I can’t” would eat the chocolate bar, whereas only thirty-six percent of those who said “I don’t” would eat the chocolate bar.
Similar research showed only one out of ten participants were able to maintain their goal of breaking the habit after ten days when saying “I can’t,” whereas eight out of ten saying “I don’t” were able to maintain their goal after the same amount of time. So if you are trying to quit smoking, try saying “I don’t smoke” instead of “I can’t smoke.” Shift your thinking with any habit this way and watch it disappear before your very eyes!
Prepare An Alternative
Replacing a bad habit with something healthier is a great way to not only break the bad habit but also speed up the process itself. This works best with a specific habit, such as overindulging on fast food or other unhealthy choices. For example, if you tend to reach for buttery popcorn every time you watch a movie, try curbing the habit by telling yourself instead of popcorn, you will reach for a handful of peanuts or a sliced apple. This way you can still have a snack while watching the movie, so if you are hungry you remain satisfied, and thus do not feel completely deprived when avoiding the popcorn.
Keep the alternative as close to the bad habit as you can, without replacing it with another, for the best chance of success. As time progresses, you can shift the alternative even more.
Don’t Go Cold Turkey
Sometimes when individuals want to break a bad habit (often when it is a New Year’s resolution), they quit entirely and suddenly - also known as going cold turkey. However, particularly with things like smoking, this can have a significant negative effect and potentially increase the chances of failing to break the habit long term. Instead, consider a schedule to wean yourself off the practice in question. For instance, if your issue is drinking alcohol every night, try reducing it to only five nights a week for a few weeks, then to three nights, and so on, until you reach your desired goal. This gives the body time to adjust to the new routine, and as such will reduce the frequency and severity of cravings or urges.
Seek Out A Support System
For many who want to break a bad practice, keeping the desire a secret is a recipe for failure. Tell someone about what habit you want to break and why - this creates accountability! Individuals are more likely to want to live up to the expectations of others and make them proud. Besides, by telling people you trust (such as a family member, significant other, or friend), they can offer support and encouragement when you find it tough to continue trying to kick your problem. Support systems can remind us of why we decided to do it in the first place and the benefits we are getting out of it, such as feeling less lethargic when breaking a fast food addiction.
Break One At A Time
Remember how going cold turkey isn’t the best method for breaking a bad habit? The same logic applies to when someone has multiple negative practices to break. Maybe they want to stop all of them, but taking on too much too soon increases the chances they will cave and won’t successfully reach their goal. Thus, if you have more than one issue you want to stop, take it one at a time. You can approach this in any way you choose, but if you need to boost your confidence in your ability to successfully break a habit, try starting with the issue you think will be easier to break. Of course, if there is an immediate need to stop a habit due to health concerns, that should take precedence.
Put A Plan In Place
When it comes down to it, individuals need to have a plan of how they are going to break their bad habit if they want to succeed. Just saying “I want to stop smoking” or “I want to stop eating so much junk food,” isn’t going to do you much good. In the case of smoking, what specific strategies - such as nicotine patches or gum - will you try to help you quit? Is there a timeline? Are you replacing the bad habit with a new one? The plan can even include some of the previously discussed ways of kicking bad habits to the curb. Develop a plan for your specific needs for the best results. The only advice for creating a plan is to remember to be forgiving, since breaking a bad habit does not happen overnight and making a mistake is not the end of the world. You simply have to keep trying!