Tired of repeating the same set of bad habits? Welcome to the practical guide on how to overcome bad habits.
Habits are hard to build and even harder to break. But breaking a bad habit is necessary as they jeopardize our physical and mental health. So how do we break bad habits? How do we get out of the cycle of repeating the same self-destructive behaviors?
Reminder - Routine - Reward
Before we talk about breaking a habit cycle, let's take a quick look at how habits are built over time. Generally, when we keep repeating an activity over days and months, we can remember it subconsciously.
Once our muscles remember the habit and it becomes a part of our routine, it sticks and thus it stays. You wake up and brush your teeth, probably make a cup of tea or pick up your phone to read the news and check Instagram.
Our brain works in a rewarding system. So whenever an activity gives us a certain sense of comfort, our brain can register it. Hence you can scroll for hours on Instagram because with every new notification, Dopamine is released and we don't want to get out of that. The same goes for sticking to a workout routine. Even it is a healthy habit, it doesn't come with instant gratification, so we happily skip it for days or months.
So how do we change it?
Identify your triggers
Generally, a habit that is considered 'bad' occurred due to a specific action. If you always delay your important work or get late for important meetings, bite nails if stressed, or react quickly in certain situations, it all has deeper connections with how we cope with pressure. James Clear, author of the book Atomic Habits claims that identifying triggers to know which causes the habit to occur is the first step to break a bad habit cycle.
Ask the following questions.
Why do you want to change a particular habit? Staying up late, spending hours on social media at night, not having healthy food, we have been through it all. So make a list of benefits for getting rid of the bad habit. Maybe you always wanted to wake up early to live a healthier life or you wanted to dedicate some time for self-care every day.
Reminders to change
Once you finish listing out the reasons to change, keep them in places related to your habit cycle. If you want to stop using social media in the morning, keep a sticky note next to your phone. If you want to avoid eating junk food, put the list on your kitchen wall and fridge magnets. Keeping them in multiple places and reminding your brain of the aspired result will make it easier to stick to a better routine.
Replace the old habit with a new one
The most effective way to change a habit is to replace it with a new one. If avoiding junk food is your goal, switch snacks to dry fruits. If staying up late happens due to unlimited YouTube videos for hours, replace the phone with a book. Ultimately new habits can make it a lot easier to delete the old pattern.
Change is hard. So slipping in old patterns while trying to build new habits can happen more than once. So don't go hard on yourself as slipping up only makes us humane. Focus on the improvement even if it's small. As Clear said,
Most people who end up breaking bad habits try and fail multiple times before they make it work. You might not have success right away, but that doesn't mean you can't have it at all.
