Habits often become so ingrained that they become invisible to our eyes. Whether your bad habit is a minor annoyance, like cracking your knuckles, or something more serious, like smoking, it will take a conscious effort to break the cycle and develop a brilliant plan. If you are unable to achieve the desired results, do not hesitate to seek professional help.
Steps
Step 1. Write down the details of your bad habit
Keep a notebook handy to record them. For at least a week, whenever you engage in your bad habit or feel tempted to do so, write down a description of your behavior and emotions at the time. By doing this you will be able to identify your behavioral patterns, and you will be forced to think about the habit consciously. Consider such possible factors:
- Does the bad habit occur more often when you are stressed or nervous?
- Is it more or less frequent in certain places or during certain activities?
Step 2. Free yourself from temptation
Try to avoid objects, places, and people that make you fall back into your bad habit. Thanks to your notebook you should be able to identify them. Since habits are often implemented without being really aware of them, it is much easier to be able to defeat them by eliminating their stimuli than by using the sheer strength of concentration.
- If you are trying not to eat unhealthy foods, remove all traces of junk food from the kitchen and other areas of your home or workplace to make it difficult to access. When grocery shopping, stay away from shelves displaying everything you shouldn't eat, or stick to a strict shopping list and don't carry any extra cash and credit cards.
- If you're trying to stop checking your cellphone all the time, turn it off or put it in airplane mode. If this technique doesn't work, after turning it off, take it to a different room in the house.
Step 3. Attach something unpleasant to your habit
You will be incentivized to abandon it, and you will avoid carrying it out unconsciously. If practicable, this technique can be very effective.
- A classic example is the person who is used to biting his nails and starts using a foul-tasting nail polish. Special specific products are available in pharmacies.
- In an attempt to recover from alcoholism, patients sometimes take medications that can cause unpleasant symptoms while drinking alcohol.
- For those habits that are not easy to make unwelcome, wrap a rubber band around your wrist and snap it on the skin to cause moderate pain whenever you realize you have succumbed to temptation.
Step 4. Replace a bad habit with a good or neutral one
Starting a new, more positive habit will not make the old one disappear, but thanks to the new ritual and as a source of pleasure it can facilitate the process of abandonment.
- Many people find that a daily exercise routine can become just as satisfying when it becomes a habit.
- Some bad habits have an opposite "good habit" that you can focus on, and there are many who find it easier and more rewarding to start that new habit than to give up the bad one. For example, to avoid unhealthy foods, challenge yourself to cook a healthy dinner for a certain number of days a week.
Step 5. Stay alert in the presence of temptations
If you are in a situation where you could easily fall back into your bad habit, mentally repeat to yourself "don't do it, don't do it". If possible, discipline your behavior in advance with a specific plan. These conscious efforts can facilitate the breaking of those unconscious habits that you would generally be led to do without thinking.
For example, if you want to quit smoking, plan to get up and make yourself a coffee or chat with a colleague when others go out for a smoke. If a friend takes out their cigarettes during a conversation, in your mind, think "no thanks, no thanks, no thanks" and be ready in case they decide to offer you one
Step 6. Take a mini vacation
Stopping a habit can be much easier when you move away from your family environment, most likely because the brain is forced to disengage the autopilot. Plan a weekend away from home and focus on establishing a new routine.
Step 7. When you don't give in to the bad habit, reward yourself
Reward yourself for achieving your goals by engaging in a fun activity. Associate success with positive feelings and experiences, not disappointment at not having achieved it.
Before you find the right reward, you may need to try multiple ones. Try setting a fifteen minute timer every time you experience one. When time runs out, ask yourself if the temptation is still there. If so, next time, change the expected gratification
Step 8. Meditate to help reprogram your mind
When you are experiencing a situation that puts you at risk of falling back into your bad habit, stop what you are doing, and meditate for a few minutes. It may initially be just a useful distraction, but over time you will be able to use meditation to calm down and feel fulfilled without falling into unwelcome behavior.
Step 9. Get help from friends and family
When we want to quit a bad habit, the people we hang out with regularly and those we love turn out to be a fabulous resource, as long as they take our efforts seriously. Ask them to help you make the change you want, and to bounce back when you give in to temptation.
Some addiction-fighting programs require a tutor to sign a contract detailing his or her responsibilities, including actions that he or she would not otherwise be inclined to do, such as throwing away the cigarettes or alcohol of the person who needs their help
Step 10. Get professional help
If your bad habit is affecting your life in an extremely negative way, seek professional help. There are specific organizations for almost any form of addiction. A therapist or doctor should be able to advise you on this, or suggest individual interviews.
