Below are a few tips to help you break a bad habit, based of Jeremy Dean’s book: Making Habits, Breaking Habits.
- Be mindful and understand when, how, and where you are performing the bad habit – and then avoid those situations.
- Create ways to shake yourself from habitual behavior. I.e.: if you want to give up smoking, put your cigarettes in an unusual place. This way, you are forced to actively consider your actions and are better able to avoid the habit.
- Have distractions ready for when you are tempted to perform the bad habit.
- Avoid trying to suppress thoughts of the bad habit. The more you try to push it out of your mind, the more it will pop up, and the more likely you are to cave to the pressure.
- Focus on making new, desirable habit to help replace the bad one.
- Recognize that self-control is a limited resource and that you’re likely to overestimate its strength.
- Make a pre-commitment. For examples, if you want to quit eating junk food, toss out any you might have in your home to prevent your future self from binging.
- Make the positive aspects of your new good habit and the negative aspects of your bad habit as vivid and concrete as you can.
- Practice self-affirmation. Think about your core values, such as your relationship with your family, which can both distance you from the temptations of the moment and replenish depleted self control.
- Change your environment. New situations forces us to think consciously about what to do, which makes it easier to notice and break old routines.
Stay tuned: Tomorrow we’ll share 10 Ways to Make a Good Habit Stick.
Please note: A copy of Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don’t, and How to Make Any Change Stick by Jeremy Dean was provided by the PR/Marketing agency.