How to Break a Bad Habit

Don't believe, when somebody promises you to break your bad habit in 21 days. Actually it might take longer or even shorter, because everything depends on you and how you will be battling your habits. And no need to say, that mostly the bad habits are never broken from the first time. It might need several attempts till you succeed.

The first thing you need to do is to become aware of your bad habit. Set your mind around it, otherwise you won't notice, when and how your bad habit happens. You can know it for sure by writing down everything. Keep a notebook and a pen in you pocket, and whenever your bad habit happens, write down the time, what caused it and where you were. In the end of the day you will come up with your total and it will be the first step towards battling your bad habit.

Many people think, that just stopping doing something is the best way to break a habit. Actually, it never works, because you habit, no matter whether it's good or bad one, is here for a reason. Your bad habit gives you some benefits in your life, and they make you feel better. And the benefits can be either physical, or emotional. For instance, the habit of biting nails usually happens as a way to relieve stress (by the way, it's the adult version of thumb sucking). Or the habit of clicking the pen is just the way to release your exceeding energy. So stopping doing it just won't work, because in this case you will miss something in your life. And guess, what will come to substitute your old bad habit? It will be the second one, and can be even worse. So use the trick of substitution of your bad habit with a good one. Your awareness about the habit and the way how it happens can help you find hundreds of ways and ideas how to do it.

Surrounding yourself with people who don't have the bad habit you have will help you break it faster. These people will give you a good example to follow! By the way, you don't have to ditch your old friends, but at the same time don't underestimate the power or new ones.

Get ready that at some point you can fail. Well, it makes you human, but don't get into the trap of negative self-talk, that will make you feel miserable about the way you are and the way how you battle your bad habit. Next time when you let your bad habit happen again, use the word “but” when you start to tell yourself, how much you suck. For instance, you eat junk food again, and then you tell yourself “I'm a fat loser and nobody likes me, but in several months I could be in a shape”. You just won't let yourself get too upset and come back to the bad habit, that gave you some satisfaction in your life. You just keep reminding yourself, that without this bad habit you will a better person, than you are now.