Replacing Negative Habits With Positive Ones

Many of us have some bad habit or the other which we are ashamed of. We might not admit this in front of others, but most of us would like to get rid of some habit or the other.

But the problem is that habits may not be so easy to break. You might have tried your best, but still be unsuccessful from staying away from your dreaded habit for long.

What do you do in such cases? How do you break your habits for good?

For example, someone might chew nails. Or you might be a bigtime procrastinator. Or you might be an indecisive person or someone who loses temper all too easily.

These kind of habits might be causing problems in your life. You need strategies to encounter and overcome them before its too late.

A good strategy to overcome a bad habit is to try and replace it with some other positive habit.

When you try to give up a habit, there is a vacuum created. Now your body is confused as it doesn't know what else to do in a situation where normally you would have indulged in your old behavior.

So you see, the body doesn't like this kind of confusion and vacuum. It may be a better option to replace the old habit with something new and positive.

Replacing a Habit - Key to Success
Instead of merely trying to remove a bad habit, try to replace it with another alternative.

Here are a few examples to help you:

If you have the habit of watching too much TV, try some other thing like reading a book or going out for a walk or spending time with your family as an alternative habit.

If you want to cut down on your coffee intake, try to replace coffee a few times with milk, or juices or green tea etc.

If you replace a habit with another one, it becomes easier for the body to accept the new behavior. Thus you can give up your old habit.

While this is not a foolproof strategy that is guaranteed to work everytime, but it can be a better strategy with more chances of success.

Just try it out a few times, and you may really be able to give up some of your bad habits if not all of them!

Recommended Resource - A good resource to help overcome bad habits within 21 days or less is the habit busting program. Check out details at - Habit Buster

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3 Steps to Overcome Bad Habits Without Forcing Yourself

Brief Understanding of Habits
Any thing that we do on regular basis can be called as a habit. Habits can be sometimes good and sometimes bad. Any habit that can cause harm to us and is not a desirable one to have can be labeled as a bad habit.

Since actions and habits are important traits of our personality, we should try to have as many good habit as we can. We should try and eliminate bad habits from our lives.

But so many people indulge in harmful behavior. This indicates it might not be so easy to completely eliminate bad habits. We may need some kind of self control and will power to let go of harmful habits.

3 Steps to Overcome Bad Habits
First understand that you are indulging in a bad habit for a reason. You are gaining something out of this behavior. That's the reason why you are unable to eliminate this habit even though you know its bad for you.

Finding out what you are gaining from this behavior can be one of the first steps to take in order to overcome it. Suppose you have the habit of shouting at people at the slightest temptation.

What benefit can you possibly derive from this action? It can help you release your anger and provide temporary relief.

Now the next step is to take a look at the negative effects of your habit. Shouting at people might provide temporary relief to you, but makes others tense and spoils your relations with others. It will also make you unhealthy.

The third step is to reflect on what you are gaining from your bad behavior and what you are losing because of it.

You are gaining temporary relief but you are also spoiling your health and spoiling relations with people. Is this a wise way to lead your life? In the end, are you losing more or gaining more out of your behavior.

When you think along those lines, it can become easy to leave off this behavior that is causing problems for you. You may find that suddenly you don't find this habit so compelling or attractive.

The above mentioned 3 steps can be an easy way to overcome bad habits. You may find that you don't have to apply too much force on yourself to quit bad habits if you apply this method.

The 3 steps are outlined for you again below:
1. Find out the positive things you are getting from your bad habit - This is important in order to realize what is making you stick to this habit!

2. Find out the negatives - This should be simple enough for you. If you decide any habit is bad then you should be able to easily point out the negatives in it.

3. Reflect on both the positives and negatives - Ponder on what you are gaining and what you are losing. Ponder on the long term effects of such behavior. Then decide for yourself whether its really wise to continue with this behavior or not.

Once you indulge in such kind of self examination, you may discover hidden motives behind bad habits. This can make it easier for you to quit this habit for ever even if you were unsuccessful before.

All the best! If you want a comprehensive training on how to overcome bad habits, eliminate procrastination, improve productivity and enhance your lives then check out - Bad Habit Busting Program

'Bad Habit Busting Program' is about eliminating bad habits within 21 days or less and replacing it with better behaviors. Imagine life without the ugly habits that you may be currently having.

Related Articles of Interest:
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2. Procrastination Help - Simple strategy to deal with procrastination

How to Recognize 6 Basic Causes of Procrastination

How to Recognize 6 Basic Causes of Procrastination That Prevent You From Achieving Success

Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. When you are starting an internet marketing business, you may be tempted to wait until you master all you feel you need to know before you begin promoting your business. You may have a fear of making a mistake. This fear can freeze you in your tracks. Everyone has a learning curve to go through. All of the internet marketing gurus have gone through a learning curve. Included in this article are six basic causes of procrastination:

1. We hesitate to do anything we don't enjoy. That may be anything from taking out the garbage to writing articles to promote our internet business. Let's take the example of taking out the trash. You know that it needs to be done, and that if you don't take it out, it is going to clutter up the kitchen and make your house smell and look bad. You also know that if you don't take it out, it is going to create an unpleasant situation with your spouse. Relate that to your internet business. You should realize that doing nothing is going to create more of the same. You are going to get a lot more of nothing. So it is important to do whatever it takes to make the business a success, even the little things you may dislike doing.

2. We put off doing activities we feel we are not good at doing. You may feel you are not good enough at making follow-up calls, or writing follow-up emails, for example. If you do not do those things you not only will not get good at doing them, you also will not make the sales you need to make in order to be successful at your business. It is a fact that you can say and write all the correct things to the wrong person and never make a sale, and you can say and write all the wrong things to the right person and make the sale. You have to do something.

3. We hesitate to do things that are not on our to-do list. We may need to change our agenda because of something, or some circumstance calls for a change. When I was working for a large corporation, as a scientist in their research department, I learned to make a list of things I had to do each day. I prioritized the list, but inevitably one of the bosses would come along with a job that needed done immediately. I learned to factor in what I called demand time. In our internet marketing business, there are demand tasks. It is an ever changing world, and sometimes we just need to change along with it. For example, if there was a closing of a production plant in your area, and you had available a list of the top employees involved, it would be foolish to put off calling them, and just sticking to your to-do list. Refusing to make those changes is another form of procrastination.

4. We put off solving problems that are likely to be messy. Confrontation is a good example. For instance, if someone in your down line is making false statements in his or her advertising you know that it is going to be confrontational to speak to that person about it. It is most definitely your responsibility to do so, and not correcting the situation will have long term consequences that are far more serious than the unpleasant task of dealing with it.

5. We procrastinate taking on tasks that take a lot energy but have a low return. We all would like to get the greatest return on our investment. We want to make as much money from our advertising dollar as possible. Once we have achieved that level of success it is tempting to forget where we came from. Training those in our down line is important, even though that activity will not yield high dividends at first. Even when we have an excellent training program for our newbies, it is important to give them the encouragement they need to get through the learning curve.

6. We hesitate to begin things we don't understand. When I started my professional training to become a Chiropractor, it had been 16 years since I had been in school. The task looked overwhelming. I decided to take on the curriculum one step at a time.I was able to successfully complete the program with honors. It is the same with the internet business. Don't put off starting until you understand everything. Take it on one step at a time.

It is important to recognize the causes of procrastination in your internet business and eliminate them. One method of eliminating them is to set up a reward system. Pick out something you really want to do and pair it up with one of the items that are causing you to procrastinate. Don't allow yourself the pleasurable activity until you have accomplished the thing you have been putting off.

For excellent training on these and other important aspects of internet marketing check out the training and internet marketing opportunity at http://easysixfigureswithconny.com.

How To Overcome Procrastination Quickly And Easily

Maybe it is time to discover a new way to overcome procrastination and get motivated.

When a deadline looms you need a quick and easy way to start making some progress and beat procrastination. This is very possible for you with the following three minor shifts in how you think about work. Read on to learn how to get motivated. You can finally overcome procrastination with these motivation tips.

1. Define Specifically What You Must Do

Ignore all other tasks for the moment. This step can be a revelation - clarity helps you to concentrate on what matters most of all.

It is a lot easier to get started when you know what needs to be done rather than feeling like you have to do everything at the same time.

Write down the goal as specifically as you can so that you have a clear and attainable target to aim for. Otherwise you will never beat procrastination.

2. Allow Yourself To Make Mistakes

If you demand perfection of yourself you will quite naturally put off getting started until the perfect moment arrives. Of course this will never happen so you will never commence the project.

It is more important to begin.

Do your best and make corrections later on. By adopting this outlook you will get something done and you can enlist the help of others to advise you and give feedback. Then improve your work after you have finished your first effort. This will help you to get motivated.

3. Compete Against Yourself

When you compete against others the possibility of failure can stop you from even trying. It is far better to compete against your previous best performance. Compare the quality of your work with your usual standards and aim to match or beat that standard. This approach puts you back in control and allows you to succeed on your own terms.

Obviously your personal standards must meet or exceed those of the people who are relying on your work.

To sum up. You can beat procrastination with a few minor shifts in how you think about success and achievement. For the sake of learning a new way of thinking about your work you can enjoy greater success and leave the anxiety of procrastination behind forever. The time to overcome procrastination, get motivated and beat procrastination forever has arrived!

Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently produced a very popular free report, the 5 Step Motivation Report. Apply now because it is available for a limited time only at: http://www.getmotivatedstaymotivated.com/special.htm

Tips to Overcome Procrastination by Changing Yourself

Procrastination can be such a thief of time. I hate it when I put off an important work only to regret it later. I sometimes put off writing articles for so many days and all those days this thing is at the back of my mind constantly nagging me.

As procrastination had been a big problem with me earlier (it is not so much of a problem now, thankfully!), I know the frustrations and problems associated with it. Here are some tips to overcome procrastination enemy which I like and find useful. Hope you too will like them.

3 Simple Tips to Overcome Procrastination & Get Work Done:

Tip #1: One of the tips to overcoming procrastination is to create a conducive or helpful atmosphere for doing things. This can be accomplished by turning off distractions as much as you can.

When you have to do something important, it may not be a bad idea to switch off your cell phone, disconnect the internet, turn off the TV, maybe even close the door and ask others not to disturb you for some time. Try to make your room quieter and free from unwanted noise. By creating an environment that is free from big distractions, you are making it easier for yourself to concentrate on the important task at hand.

Tip #2: Many people, including myself, postpone things till the last possible moment. Then we try to hurry up and finish off the task. People of such kind need to realize that this is not a good habit for various reasons. First and foremost, we are putting unnecessary pressure upon ourselves.

Secondly, we are trying to finish off a task within less time than is optimally required for it. This can affect the quality of the output of our work. Thirdly, if any sudden unexpected and urgent work comes up at the time when we are finally starting to do the task, then we won't have time left for us anymore.

Hopefully, with realization and little bit discipline, we might be able to conquer this habit of procrastinating till the last moment.

Tip #3: A useful tip to overcoming procrastination would be to change the self talk that we have related to our work. Suppose you have to do something important, but you keep telling yourself how difficult the task is, or how you hate doing it. This kind of negative self talk would keep us from starting that task. In such cases, we may need to change our attitude and focus and concentrate on the positive aspects of the job or visualize the job completed perfectly and easily on time.

We need to have a positive self talk with ourselves and keep reminding ourselves that the task will not be as difficult or dreadful as I am supposing it to be and I may even enjoy it once I start doing it. What I feel is that we need to change our self talk little by little for it to be effective. If we tell ourselves all of a sudden that the task will be absolutely easy or that you will absolutely love that task, I doubt if such kind of self-talk will have positive results. Initially just tone down the self talk so that it is at least a little bit believable.

Trying out the Above Tips:

If you can overcome procrastination habit, you can feel a new found freedom of being able to do things at will whether you like something or not. It may take time but little by little you can conquer this deadly habit which is stealing away your time and causing frustrations and regret in your life. The above tips and strategies should help you to a good extent to curb your procrastination habit and get more things done on time and with relative ease than you felt before.

To know how to change your bad habits to good ones and end procrastination in less than 21 days, check out - Procrastination & Bad Habit Busting

Do you feel your laziness is sabotaging your career and success? Find out simple tips to curb laziness and procrastination - tips to overcome laziness

How to Handle Procrastination?

What is Procrastination? Why can't I just do it? When we fail to do something that we wished to do but did not, we ask ourself the question "Why can't I just get on and DO it?" I had a friend in school who hated studying Shakespeare - he never progressed beyond the prologue. "How can I read and understand the rest of the book, unless I have mastered the prologue?" he said. In his anxiety to avoid the main text, he was always stuck with the prologue -and never progressed beyond it, except to skip the text and master the epilogue!

A common problem, usually explained as putting off doing something important. Most of us procrastinate sometime or the other. What are other signs of procrastination besides waiting until the last minute to do something? Try these on for size: being reluctant to take risks or try something new, staying at home or in the same old job, getting sick when faced with an unpleasant job, avoiding confrontations or decisions, blaming others or the situation ("it's boring") for your unhappiness or to avoid doing something, making big plans but never carrying them out, and/or having such a busy social-recreational calendar that it is hard to get important work done.

This list of symptoms suggests that procrastination, which at first sounds like a simple behavior, is, in fact, quite complex. It involves emotions, skills, thoughts or attitudes, and factors we are unaware of. Furthermore, the causes and dynamics of putting off an important but unpleasant task vary from person to person and from task to task for the same person. For instance, you may delay doing your math assignment but fill out an application for school immediately. Hopefully, understanding how and why we procrastinate will help us change it.

Procrastination is a strange phenomenon. Its purpose seems to be to make our life more pleasant but instead it almost always adds stress, disorganization, and frequently failure. The process goes something like this; (1) You want to achieve some outcome, usually something you and others value and respect--"I've got to start." (2) You delay, briefly thinking of real and imagined advantages of starting to change later--"I'll do it tomorrow when I don't have much to do." (3) You delay more, becoming self-critical--"I should have started sooner"--and/or self-excusing-- You may hide or pretend to be busy; you may even lie about having other obligations. (4) You delay still more, until finally the task has to be done, usually hastily--"Just get it done any old way" --or you just don't have time--"I can't do this!" (5) You berate yourself--"There is something wrong with me" --and swear never to procrastinate again and/or you discount the importance of the task--"It doesn't matter." (6) You repeat the process almost immediately on other important tasks, as if it were an addiction or compulsion.

The wisest course of action, most of the time, would be to simply do the unpleasant task as soon as practical, while we have enough time to do the job right and get it over with, not prolonging our agony. But we put it off. Why? There are many possible reasons: (1) we feel good about setting goals and declaring that we are going to change or succeed "sometime," (2) by procrastinating we shorten the time we actually have to work on the task, and (3) much of the time we avoid the unpleasant task altogether. Research has shown that 70% of New Year's resolutions are abandoned by February 1.

Procrastinating can best be understood by identifying the emotions associated with or underlying the behavior. Actually, procrastination is an attempt to cope with our emotional reactions. What are these emotions? Fear of failure or success is the most likely emotion Anger - this includes rebellion against control. Dislike of the work that needs to be done is another. Depression can slow us down (and failing due to procrastination can depress us). Seeking pleasure is another disruptive motive. So the task for the procrastinator becomes (1) correctly identifying your form(s) of procrastination and (2) finding a solution for your specific emotional reaction.

Types of procrastinators

Fundamentally, there are two kinds of procrastinators: one tense and the other relaxed. The tense type often feels both an intense pressure to succeed and a fear of failure; the relaxed type often feels negatively toward work and blows it off--forgets it--by playing. The denial-based type of procrastinator avoids as much stress as possible by dismissing work or disregarding more challenging tasks and concentrating on "having fun" or some other distracting activity. The tense-afraid type of procrastinator is described as feeling overwhelmed by pressures, unrealistic about time, uncertain about goals, dissatisfied with accomplishments, indecisive, blaming others or circumstances for failures, lacking in confidence and, sometimes, perfectionistic. Thus, the underlying fears are of failing, lacking ability, being imperfect, and falling short of overly demanding goals. This type thinks his/her worth is determined by what he/she does, which reflects his/her level of ability. He/she is afraid of being judged and found wanting. Thus, this kind of procrastinator will get over-stressed and over-worked until he/she escapes the pressure temporarily by trying to relax but any enjoyment gives rise to guilt and more apprehension.

Thus procrastinators are classified as: perfectionists - dread doing anything that is less than perfect dreamers - who have great ideas but hate doing the details worriers - who don't think things are right but fear that changes will make them worse, defiers - resist doing anything expected by someone else crisis-makers - who manage to find or make a big problem in any project (often by starting too late) over-doers - who take on way too many tasks.

How to stop procrastinating?

1. Focus on the real problems--underlying fears, attitudes and irrational ideas. 2. Next, figure out what the underlying problem is. Start by asking, "Am I a relaxed or a tense procrastinator?" Tense procrastinators suffer from strong, sometimes mean, internal critics. Relaxed procrastinators deny reality.

Below are some self-help procedures that should be of help to relaxed and tense procrastinators. For most procrastinators, a To-Be-Done List, a daily schedule, and a simple record-keeping and reward procedure will do wonders. Changes may occur immediately, but backsliding is common. Most people have to overcome procrastination gradually. Breaking big jobs down into manageable tasks and working on "getting started," perhaps by tricking yourself by saying "I'll just do five minutes" and then finding out you don't mind working longer than five minutes. This is called the "five minute plan." The key is to learn the habit of getting started on a task early, i.e. the procrastinator needs to learn to initiate well in advance studying and preparing for papers and exams.

Many procrastinators, however, resist these methods. As one client told me, "I can easily ignore schedules and reminders. Rewards and penalties are the worst of all--I just take the reward without doing the work and I forget to punish myself." A truly dedicated "relaxed" procrastinator will need more internal motivation, maybe a new philosophy of life or simply more worry and tension, i.e. a much stronger self-critic.

Relaxed procrastinators usually use three kinds of common diversions to avoid doing something; 1. Action cop-outs. This is doing something that isn't a priority. Examples: Watching TV, eating, playing, sleeping, or even cleaning. Once we are engrossed in the diversion, we block out the anxiety, self-doubts, anger, or boredom associated with the work we are putting off but should be doing. 2. Mental excuses. There are three main types: (a) "I'll do it tomorrow" or "I do my best work late at night, I'll do it then." Since you have promised yourself that you will be good, you can escape work and enjoy guilt-free play. (b) "I'll go shopping now so I can study all evening" or "I'll call them just as soon as I think of something clever to say" or "I'll fix up my apartment, then I'll make friends." Some unimportant activity takes priority over the main but unpleasant or scary event. (c) "I want an 'A' in statistics but Dr. Mean would never give me one". 3. Emotional diversions. Taking drugs, listening to music, reading novels, and even getting involved in friendships, love, flirtations, or religion could, at times, serve as an escape from unpleasant but important tasks.

In summary, what can the pleasure-seeking procrastinator do? (1) Stop turning little inconvenient mole hills (like having to do something unpleasant) into giant "ain't-it-awful" mountains, (2) be on the look out for any self-con or cop out by which we deny the need to work right now, (3) start to think more rationally--you don't have to go to every party, you can get interested in a doing the project, (4) make detailed, realistic plans for achieving your long-range goals, and (5) don't avoid work, DO IT NOW!

If you are an anxiety based procrastinator the following is recommended

1. Reduce your fear of failing 2. Keep a record of your avoidance of important tasks: What excuses were used? What thoughts and feelings did you have? What was done instead of the work? What was the outcome? 3. Change procrastinating ways of thinking to productive ways: 4. Take responsibility instead of blaming. 5. For the over-achiever, the workaholic, the ambitious perfectionist, avoid the tendency to live entirely in the future. Productive people need to take vacations and play (without guilt)! Insist on your fun. 6. Turn worries and self-doubts into assets by asking (a) What is the worst possible outcome? (b) What would I do if the worst happened? How would I carry on? (c) What strengths and skills do I have that would help me cope? How will I forgive myself for messing up? (d) What alternative plans could I develop for having a good life? (e) Can I do things now to help avoid this awful outcome I fear? (f) Having prepared for the worst, how can I use my worries to prepare to become stronger and more capable? This kind of planning helps us face the inevitable risks that lurk ahead for all of us. 7. Schedule your fixed hours and your fun time. That's all, no work! Make the playing mandatory, not the work. Work becomes more enjoyable when it isn't seen as hard, boring, endless chores that have to be done. 8. Other methods are prescribed: a calendar based on when projects are due, a set of realistic goals, an approach to work in a relaxed state of concentration, and a quick, optimistic response to setbacks.

While most procrastination issues can be sorted out by following the self help methods enlisted above - the major problem is consistency and back tracking.

Sanjay Behuria

http://www.knowurself.com

"Achieve Your Unlimited Potential"

Life and Executive Coach

Overcoming Procrastination: Ten Tips For Breaking the Habit

My name is Doug, and I'm a procrastinator.

That's right, I'm a procrastinator. And it is likely that you are as well. It is generally accepted by those who have studied the issue that 95% of the population procrastinates on occasion, with 15 to 20% characterized as chronic procrastinators. According to Dr. Joseph Ferrari there are three basic types of procrastinators:

1. Arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.
2. Avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.
3. Decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events.

Regardless of which type procrastinator you may be, you'll be encouraged to know that procrastination is a learned behavior. That means it's possible to overcome the habits you have developed. With that in mind, here are ten tips for conquering procrastination:

1. Take responsibility. You are responsible for your success or failure. Taking responsibility for your actions if the critical first step to overcoming procrastination.
2. Acknowledge your fears. Whether it's fear of failure or fear of success, acknowledging your fear makes it possible to overcome that fear.
3. Set realistic goals. SMART goals (goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time limited) are the foundation from which all success is built. A failure to set realistic goals is an invitation to procrastination.
4. Change your environment. Does the physical space you occupy encourage you to work or does it contain inviting distractions from work? And are you occupying it at the time of day when you're most alert or does your attention wander due to fatigue?
5. Have a "to do" list. Write down the tasks you have been avoiding and keep the list in clear view. It's amazing how satisfying it can be to check off the tasks as they're accomplished!
6. Prepare for tomorrow. At the end of each day, take stock of what you have accomplished and then plan out your tasks for the following day.
7. Align your actions with your values. Simply put, do your actions reflect your values?
8. Set priorities. Nothing encourages procrastination more than having multiple tasks and no plan for which task is most important at a particular moment.
9. Reward yourself. Give yourself an incentive to accomplish a task. Just be sure that the "value" of the incentive is appropriate to the task.
10. Use an accountability partner. An effective accountability partner will hold your feet to the fire should you fail to accomplish a task that you committed to finishing.

Let me caution you to not let the size of this list scare you into inaction. It is not important that you immediately incorporate every tip. Pick the one or two that are most appropriate for you, but do it now. Don't let procrastination get in the way of your success. Use these ten tips to move beyond procrastination, and do it today!

Doug Petch specializes in helping organizations and individuals create the synergies in team building, leadership and communication skills that lead to sustained profitability and long-term success. He is also the host of the popular Sixty Second Success Seminar, an audio program focused on the tools, tips and techniques that anyone can use to navigate their path to success.

For more team building, leadership and communication tools, tips and techniques visit dougpetch.com