How to stop bad habits?

Over time, I have been quite lazy. I have made choices that have prevented me from achieving some goals I wish I have could achieve today. I still remember the time I spent most of my holidays playing Guitar and slept until the afternoon – which was early in my head – because I was in the habit of going to bed late at night. It was just fine for me to sit in the room all day in front of my PlayStation or to Netflix. That slowly changed as I began to read about personal development and found my way back to my old roots.

Today, I feel broad about my body and Health. I set the alarm clock to 6:20 no matter what (except on the weekends), try to get used to social media, and make sure to learn something new all the time. It helps me and develops me into who I want to be and who I had forgotten I was.

I can still sleep for a long time, but it has consequences in the form of headaches. There is also still time to laze, but it makes me tired in the body and I feel a little that time is being wasted.

How to stop bad habits? Getting out of a bad habit takes time and requires motivation, but it is not impossible. Experience has taught me that motivation is a trait one can train.

The power of a habit

We all have some kind of habit. When you park your car at work, it must be parked in a specific parking space. You bite your nails when you watch movies. You put on socks before you put on pants. How to stop bad habits? But there are also many bad habits like smoking, eating high-calorie food, or drinking beer too much. All habits – unhealthy as well as healthy – give the brain some form of reward. Ever since the development of the brain 100,000 years ago, it has not been able to keep up when it comes to primitive goods. Back then, it was directly survival-promoting. Sweet fruits or finally getting the fire going brought good things with it: Food and heat. Therefore, the brain rewarded them at the time and encouraged them to repeat it. It’s almost the same today, except we don’t always eat for the sake of survival anymore.

The reward system in the brain helps us figure out what is good. But take e.g. a bag of chips. Your brain says, “Calories! Survival!” You say, “I’m full to the brim, so I should not.” Subsequently, it helps you remember where you got them from. So if one day you feel bad or upset, the brain recommends that you eat chips too, it’s good for you. Or it becomes a habit that you eat chips every time you watch movies, after which it develops into every time you watch television. Before you know it, the habit is becoming so ingrained that you do not even know how the damn bag of chips ended up in your lap.

The brain is the red devil

The brain is the red devil on the shoulder that tells you what to do, even though you know it’s bad. A 2010 study found that smokers who tried to quit smoking smoked even more. If you as a smoker say to yourself that you must not smoke anymore, your brain hears the word smoke and repeats it like an echo in your head to get its will. If, on the other hand, you tell yourself that you need to take a piece of chewing gum when the urge to smoke arises, you slowly begin to change the habit with a more positive habit.

In another study it was shown that even though we sit down and try to concentrate on a task or something else, half of us eventually lose concentration, drive into daydreaming or start checking the phone for no reason. The bad habits take over. How to stop bad habits?

It is certainly not wrong to say that we are not perfect. We do not have to be either, but we can at least try to be better and more sensible about our choices.

Capture yourself at the moment

How to stop bad habits? Catch yourself when the habit arises and be curious. Why do you do as you do? Or why did you do as you did? Notice when the habit unfolds. Examine the habit from all sides and edges. It gives you a greater understanding of why it occurs and what you can do to avoid it. Most bad habits, in the end, only lead to bad. Maybe you come for example. Always late for work or school because you are sleeping over. And you sleep over yourself because you always go to bed too late. And you might go to bed too late because you’re taking a nap when you get home. You are guaranteed to know well that bad habits lead to bad, but it’s still good to just mention, as not everyone is aware of it or simply just does not care.

Try to think of the habit differently. How will the habit affect your future? How will the habit affect those around you – your family? Do your current decisions fit in with what you want in the future? Get a good idea of ​​what’s most important to you. If the habit is something that directly affects your health, then think about whether the habit is more important than 10-20 years extra with your children.

Also, keep in mind that habits are habits after all. This means that they are mostly well-grown and not very easy to get rid of. But there is something you can do.

7 Tips for breaking bad habits

How to stop bad habits?

1. Start with the negative habits

By that I mean you start with the directly harmful ones. Nail-biting can be lived with, but 5 liters of soda a day is harmful. Jumping over the cracks in the tiles is fine, but lying down for a whole day is bad for the health in the long run.

2. Be specific about what you want to change 

You need more than just to say that you want to start training. Why do you want to train? Is it for the sake of health? What can you do now to get started? Would it help to put the running shoes out at the front door?

3. Make it harder to live with the bad habit 

If you want to eat less sweet things, throw them out or put them so high up on a shelf that you have to find a chair instead of reaching for them. If you try to quit smoking, hand over your cigarettes to someone in the family, so you have to ask for permission before you can smoke one. People came up with a fun idea to put money in a jar every time you let the habit get in the way. You can also give a 10 to one of your friends every time it happens.

4. Write journal daily 

Maybe you have never written a diary and that is not really what I am asking you to do. It’s a way to keep track of your habits – when they occur and why. It does not matter if you have written one before or not. Try it out and see what works. If you drop writing altogether, the world will not perish for that reason.

5. Make a calendar 

If you’ve seen Matt D’Avella’s videos on Youtube, you’ve seen his 30-day challenges. If not, I can tell he puts a calendar up on the wall for one month at a time. Every day he puts across once he has completed what he has set for that month. It can e.g. be that for a month he has chosen to take a bath in ice-cold water every day. The calendar is a good way to keep track of whether you have managed the day without e.g. to smoke. It is also a form of a shrug.

6. Run / go for a walk 

If all else fails, run or go for a walk. Get away from what tempts. Enjoy nature, get some air for your head, and think of something else. It helps to keep going instead of sitting and thinking that you must not be tempted by old habits.

7. Reward yourself 

As I said, the brain loves rewards. There will probably come a time when you think you will get nothing out of continuing to try to change the habit. It’s hard and the old habit starts to seem alluring. Therefore, when you reward yourself for getting one step closer to the new and better habit, the brain finds that this provides as good a reward as the old one. You can e.g. Use the money you saved on cigarettes to take out and get something delicious to eat.

You can do it

It’s hard to change your habits, so take slow steps. It is completely alright. You do not have to change all your bad habits in one hour. It only makes you crazy. Also, do not get angry at yourself for falling back once in a while. It’s more normal than you think. Accept the relapses but still try to avoid them as much as possible. Instead of wading directly into the danger zone, try taking a few deep breaths and thinking about why you would want to change the habit.

You must not lose heart, for every step forward is a step in the right direction. However, make sure that you do not go through a stressful and difficult period of your life because it will only become more difficult and feel like an extra burden to bear if you suddenly start to change your habits.

I hope you got something out of it and got an idea of ​​what you can do in the future to change your habits. If nothing else, it provides food for thought and can be used in your upcoming New Year’s sequel.

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” 

Karen Lamb

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