Breaking Bad…Habits, That Is

From smoking and cursing to eating junk food and biting your nails, bad habits just seem hard to shake, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be overcome. Here are a few tips to help you drop your bad habits or, at least, reduce the intensity.

Take It Slow; You’re Not Being Timed

Breathe. You don’t have to worry about a bomb going off if you don’t break your bad habits in a certain amount of time. Breaking your bad habits should be done on your own time because this is really only beneficial to you. If you don’t have the intention to start right away, it’s your decision, so fear not!

Whenever you decide to start, keep in mind that it’s okay to start slow and pace yourself. Even an hour of not swearing is a great start; hours can turn to days and days to months, and so on. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day, so please, take your time and don’t stress yourself out by giving yourself a time limit. It’s way easier for you to start small instead of being too ambitious from the start.

Take Precautions

If you’re really serious about breaking your bad habits then this is something you should do frequently. Setting up precautions beforehand allows for the urge to lessen while you go about your day. In my experience, I found that painting my nails prevented me from biting them off (that is until the paint starts to chip off…then it’s game over for my poor nails). If your bad habit is smoking, maybe having a friend or family member take a few cigarettes from the pack would be a good start towards helping you quit.

When setting up precautions, make sure that they are reasonable and safe. Doing anything that could be potentially harmful and life-threatening is NOT going to make anything better. In fact, you could potentially create an even worse habit than the one you started with. Please, darling, don’t make anything worse than it has to be.

You’re Doing Great, So Keep Track Of It!

Whenever you accomplish a goal in life, you want to remember it, don’t you? Duh, of course you do! That’s why keeping a record of your progress is a great idea if you want to watch yourself improve and become more motivated to break your bad habits. I know there’s a spare notebook and pen lying around somewhere in your house, so grab it and get to writing!

As you record your progress, keep in mind that some days are going to be worse than others. There’s no such thing as having a good day every day (unless you’re some sort of genie or something). Even on the bad days, remember to record everything, especially if you find yourself relapsing. Having a record of these types of things allows you to go back, reflect on what happened, and begin working on doing things differently to become stronger.

Surround Yourself In Support

Tell me, what good is it doing if you are amongst people who are going to encourage you to keep your bad habits? The answer: NO GOOD! If you surround yourself with people who promote your bad habits, chances are they will only give you reasons to continue instead of quit. Bad friends also create bad habits and we do not need any more of those. These types of people are going to be bothersome to deal with anyways, so if you don’t want any of that unnecessary negativity and stress, grab the scissors and cut along the dotted line!

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Instead, you should try to find people who support you in your decision to quit your bad habit. Finding a group of people who are also trying to recover from a bad habit is a fantastic way to find the support you need to achieve your goal. With these people around, you’ll find it easier to become encouraged and empowered to drop your bad habit. It may even be a little more fun!

Find Something Positive To Distract You

If you’re cooped up alone in your room all the time, you’ll most likely feel the tingle of that nagging bad habit coming on. If that’s the case, you will need to find something positive to occupy your mind, pronto. Distracting yourself with a good time-consuming task allows for your attention to come away from the bad habit and focus on creating good habits.

There are many hobbies that can be done to cancel out a bad habit. You could take up painting, journaling, scrapbooking, or maybe even blogging. Hobbies that allow you to progress and become better offer more brain stimulation and, in turn, cause you to want to do it more often to become exceptional at that hobby. For instance, by becoming a blogger, I’m focused more on writing and therefore my bad habit is in the back of my mind.

If you can’t think of anything to do on your own, I suggest asking fellow friends and family about hobbies that may interest them. Also, looking locally for things to do is a great idea if you’re looking for a distraction. Going the local route is also ideal if you’re looking for something that isn’t too expensive and/or too far away. So, keep your eyes peeled if your community is having an event- it might just save you from succumbing to your bad habit.

Now that you know a few tips to help you tackle a bad habit, put them to use for yourself or share it with a friend or family member in need of advice. And, please, remember this: your bad habits don’t make you a bad person. Your bad habits don’t determine what you are and are not capable of. Your bad habits do not define who you are. You have the power to overcome anything, so get to it!

Featured image from  https://www.healthline.com/health/dermatophagia#outlook