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

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

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