Tips For Breaking A Habit
Tips for Breaking a Bad Habit
Who doesn’t have a bad habit? It would be hard to find someone that you know that won’t admit to having some type of bad habit. These habits can be related to your health, your relationship or to your business.
One of the hardest things about breaking a bad habit is getting enough motivation to actually take steps to break it. Some of the most well-known ways to break a habit include:
- Quitting cold turkey
- Setting a date to quit your habit
- Replacing the bad habit with a good one
All of these methods can easily work for you, if you are truly ready to break your habit. Would you say that you currently have the desire to quit your habit? Or is it something that you keep putting off until next week?
We are all busy with our lives and this is why quitting cold turkey or setting a quitting date do not always work. The minute you tell yourself that you can’t have or do something, you end up thinking about it all day long. Small children are a fantastic example of this. When you tell them that they can’t have something, they drive you nuts asking for it.
So what can you do instead?
Your approach to quitting your bad habit needs to be a little different. Let’s say for example that you want to quit eating sugar. The minute you place this item on an ‘I can never have it’ list, you constantly crave it.
How about tackling it this way.
Get up tomorrow morning and tell yourself that you are just going to get through one day without eating sugar. Instead of saying “I can’t eat sugar”, say to yourself, “I don’t eat sugar.” You will find it much easier to say no when offered something that contains sugar. You are making a choice instead of being told by something or someone outside yourself.
What you will discover is that when tomorrow comes you only have to get through one more day without eating sugar. Again it will be much easier to manage and you will find that your motivation increases. Within a few days you won’t be craving the sugar as much and you will start automatically saying no when offered cake or cookies.
Now that’s not to say you can never eat a piece of cake again. Honestly who doesn’t want to have a piece of birthday or a slice of wedding cake when offered? All you are doing is not making sweets treats a huge part of your life. Instead you can easily reserve these things as ‘treats’ for a special occasion.
Here’s some steps for you to consider:
- Try and determine what it is that makes you perform your bad habit. Is it getting upset or frustrated with someone? Write down the reason and keep it somewhere that you can see it.
- If you are letting someone’s reaction to something force you into eating, switch the eating up with another action. Maybe go for a walk, have a cup of tea or coffee or call up a friend. Don’t let your habit rule your emotions.
- Is your bad habit affecting your health, do you feel stiff and sore or know that you are putting on the pounds, but hate to admit it? Think about how you will feel if you continue in this way, are you ready to start feeling worse about yourself?
Breaking a bad habit is not going to be easy. While you do need to be aware of your choices, you don’t want this to become an obsession. Instead take one day at a time and get through those 12 or 14 hours at a time. I am sure you will agree that this seems more doable than using another method. Plus if you do fall off the wagon, you have only ruined one day and can get back on track tomorrow. Each day is a new beginning.
To your success
Fran Watson