Your 30 Day Start To Break A Habit

Let’s get something straight: Bad habits can be hard to break. Especially bad habits that you have been doing for a long time. In order to make positive changes in your life by changing your habits you must start with the single thought that regardless of the habit, it is your own destructive behaviors that are keeping you away from the life you desire.

For far too many of us, bad habits keep can be the only thing standing in the way of achieving the success that we want from life. Even if there are things outside of our control, we can control or habits.

Simply put, more often than not, we are our own worst enemies when it comes to having success in our lives.

Set Routines

The habits that we have incorporated in our lives end up becoming set routines. Habits by definition are actions that we take without even thinking about them. In many cases we are hardly even aware when we are acting from our habit based routines.

This is the double-edged sword of habits. We can do things that are good for us without thinking about them, but the same thing equally applies to our bad habits. It is the automated response and lack of awareness of our bad habits that is keeping us from our success and quite possibly, over time, even killing us.

Be Aware

Becoming consciously aware of the bad habits in our daily routine is the starting point for change. Unhealthy habits can have a negative impact on your physical and mental health and leave you feeling as though you don’t have any control over your impulses. Making the necessary changes for a better life is no doubt challenging, however, having a plan and working your plan will make it easier to make the changes that you need to make.

This Step-By-Step Plan Can Help You Eliminate Any Bad Habit:

1. Start With One And Monitor The Habit For A Week.

Become aware of your habits. You need to realize when you are doing them during your day. Make note of the times you’re likely to engage in the habit. Maybe you only smoke around certain friends. Perhaps you bite your nails when you’re stressed or bored. At any rate, identify under which circumstances your habit is most likely to rear its ugly head.

Keep a small notebook with you or use an app on your phone to keep a log of when you engage in your bad habits.

2. Find Out Why You Engage In Your Bad Habits.

Your habit is satisfying some need you have. Logically speaking, even though at some level you know that your habit is bad for you, you still do it. Believe it or not, you are actually gaining some benefit from the bad habit or you wouldn’t be exhibiting the behavior at all. Figuring out the “positive” aspects of your habit will help you understand it better. Once you understand it, then you can begin to change it.

For many bad habits doing them can be a way to deal with stress or boredom.

3. Develop A Substitute Behavior: Start Doing A Good Habit In Place Of The Bad One.

Figure out a more acceptable alternative that satisfies the same need that was being met by the old habit. No one is saying that you should do nothing or try to ignore the time when you need to react to something. What is being said is that instead of doing your bad habit, do something else. Do something that is actually good for you!

So if your bad habit helps you to deal with stress, what are some healthy alternatives? Yoga? An other form of exercise? Deep breathing? Meditating? Singing? Watching a comedy? Calling a friend? Chewing gum?

What could you do instead that isn’t harmful? Better yet, what could you do instead that would actually be beneficial and healthy for you?
Start substituting the new habit for the old one. It will take a fair amount of attention on your part. You will need to exert conscious effort at first, but begin intentionally substituting the new behavior each time that you would have automatically used the old behavior.
It’s likely to be challenging, but with a concerted and positive focus, you can do it.

4. Measure Your Progress: The Ups And Downs, Make Note Of Them All.

Keep track of how many times you engage in the old habit and how many times you engage in the new habit. Knowledge is power. Being aware of your actions will give you the awareness that you need to make the changes that you need to be making.

Progress can be difficult to determine without measurement; if you don’t know where you are, how will you know if you’re moving forward or backward? By measuring your progress, you accomplish two things:

You get feedback so you know how successful you are.
You have the added motivation of seeing your progress.

Even the smallest amount of success can be inspiring. It is concrete and real evidence that you can make changes when you put your mind to it. Journal or log your days with regard to how you managed your habit for that day.

5. Be Patient With Yourself.

Take one step at a time. Expecting total perfection is unreasonable, but a little perfection can work wonders. Don’t be upset when the inevitable slip occurs while you’re breaking your old habit. We are only human. Sooner or later we will slip up. Just examine the situation dispassionately and determine a better solution for the next time. You still gain a lot by decreasing the frequency of the bad habit.

A good idea is to focus on having one perfect day today. The idea of one day without the habit should seem quite reasonable – and doable – to you. With one day under your belt, a string of a few perfect days in a row is a lot easier than trying to be perfect for an extended period of time.
For tougher habits, a “perfect hour” might work better for your short-term goal than a full perfect day.
Once you have completed the “perfect” time period, start slowly extending the time between the habitual occurrences. One day becomes two days, two days becomes three days. Likewise, one hour becomes two hours and two hours becomes three hours. Slowly but surely build on your success.

Conclusion

Now that you’re armed with a process, you can start eliminating that bad habit today. In 30 days, the new, healthier habit should be a part of your routine without requiring as much conscious effort. Keep in mind that you may need 66 days to completely cement the new habit into becoming a part of your sub-conscious routine. Changing to more positive habits can be challenging, but it is doable. and you gain a wonderful sense of accomplishment when you do so. Your life will better off and real success in your grasp.

Once you have one bad habit eliminated from your life, and since you are in good practice, tackle changing another habit.