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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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
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:
1. 70+ Traits of Low Self Esteem People
2. Procrastination Help - Simple strategy to deal with procrastination
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:
1. 70+ Traits of Low Self Esteem People
2. Procrastination Help - Simple strategy to deal with procrastination
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