5 Simple Steps To Break A Bad Habit

Bad habits hinder you from achieving your goals and disrupt your life. They endanger both your emotional and physical wellbeing. And they are a waste of your time and effort. So why are they still performed? And most importantly, can you do anything to break a bad habit? 

Let’s talk about the process of changing negative habits. How can you replace bad habits with healthy ones? These 5 simple steps can help you break a bad habit and start a new one. 

5 Simple Steps To Break A Bad Habit 

1. Identify The Habit You Want To Break

The first step to breaking a bad habit is identifying the specific habit to break.  Asking your significant other, friends, or family members is the simplest way to identify an unhealthy habit. They’ll be able to point out behaviors you weren’t even aware you possessed. However, you must show that you are willing to listen to what it is that they have to say. 

Also, it’s essential to determine what constitutes a poor habit for you because it may not be the same for everyone. For example, one person’s practice of consuming carbs may be considered unhealthy by another. In general, a bad habit has one or more of the following characteristics: 

• It prevents you from becoming your best.
• It harms your health and well-being.
• Either society views it with disdain, or it violates social norms.
• Many people find it irritating or something to be avoided. 

2. Determine What Causes The Habit

Figure out what causes you to engage in the bad habit. Track your habit for a few days to determine if there are any patterns. Consider the following: 

• Where does the habit occur?
• At what hour of the day?
• How do you feel when the habit happens?
• Is someone else involved?
• Does it occur immediately after something else? 

For instance, you want to break a bad habit of staying up past midnight. After observing your routine for a couple of days, you notice that you tend to stay up later on nights when you start watching television or having conversations with friends.

You have decided that you will switch off your phone on weeknights and quit watching television by the time 9 o’clock rolls around. Eliminating the factor that causes you to stay up too late, such as watching television or catching up with friends, makes it more challenging to maintain the habit. 

3. Focus On Why You Want To Stop The Habit

What is the motivation behind your decision to stop a particular habit? Research has shown that it is simpler to change a behavior if the change benefits you. Spend a few minutes thinking about why you want to break the habit and the positive outcomes that you anticipate as a result of making the change.

Put your reasons down on paper and past them in a prominent location where you will see them often, such as your refrigerator or bathroom mirror. This will provide you with an additional boost of inspiration. In situations where you find yourself returning to the habit, your list will remind you of why you want to keep trying. 

4. Leave Yourself Reminders

When you are presented with a circumstance that prompts you to engage in a bad habit, it may be helpful to place visual cues such as stickers, sticky notes, or other types of reminders in the area. Here are a few concepts to consider: 

• Do you want to kick the habit of having a Coke with every meal? You may want to try sticking some little stickers on your fridge so that you’ll notice them whenever you go to get a can.
• Are you having trouble keeping in mind to switch off the lights whenever you leave a room? Put a note upon the door or the light switch to remind yourself.
• Do you want to stop losing your keys so regularly so that you may start storing them in a specific place? Put a dish for your keys in the first room you enter when you get home. This will help you find them more quickly. 

You may also set alarms and reminders on your smartphone. Put an encouraging message next to your alarm clock.

5. Replace The Habit With A New One

You could find it simpler to stop a bad habit if you replace it with new behavior instead of just trying to stop the undesirable behavior. For example, if you wish to break a habit of reaching for sweets whenever you’re hungry at work. 

Even if you make an effort to steer clear of the candy dish, there is still a chance that you may give in to your cravings when you are too hungry to exercise self-control. You may increase the number of snack options available by bringing in a Tupperware container filled with dried fruit and nuts and keeping it at your desk. 

As you continue to engage in the new pattern of behavior, you will eventually acquire the desire to follow the new habit. When you start reaping the benefits of your new activity, such as increased energy levels and a reduced likelihood of experiencing a sugar crash, you may find that the desire to continue engaging in this behavior becomes more potent than your previous one. 

Final Thoughts

Studies have shown that it takes 66 days to break a habit. If you have ever attempted to break a habit but were unsuccessful, one possible explanation is that you gave up on the process too quickly.  You could have believed that you lacked the self-control necessary to break the habit, but in reality, all that was required was more perseverance. You will be able to stop a bad habit and replace it with a good one if you follow these five simple steps and put them into practice. 

Check out our lifestyle section; you might also be interested in These 4 Habits to help you reach financial freedom.