How To Beat A Bad Habit

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We all have bad habits. Some are worse than others – biting your nails may simply be irritating and cause little harm, however something like smoking could be causing serious harm. Identifying a bad habit is the first step. Here is how you can then go about ridding this bad habit once and for all.

List all the reasons you want to break your bad habit
Having lots of reasons to break you bad habit can help to motivate you. It’s possible that quitting a bad habit could repair relationships around you. For example, it could allow you to get back with an ex as this guide shows – you can see it here. Breaking a bad habit could alternative have health benefits that in turn allow you to pursue hobbies and interests (e.g. giving up smoking could improve your athletic ability). In other cases, giving up a bad habit could save you money.

Take up a healthier habit in its place
Quitting a bad habit outright can be difficult and may leave a sense of emptiness. Filling this void with a healthier habit could help to make it easier to break the habit. This could include chewing gum instead of smoking, snacking on fruit and nuts instead of sweets or playing video games instead of gambling.

Remove temptations
Having temptations around you could cause you to slip back into your old ways. Try to find ways to get rid of these triggers – if you’re trying to give up drinking, this could include not having alcohol in the house and meeting up with friends for coffee rather than at a bar. It’s not always possible to remove temptations (i.e. if you live with people who drink or work in a bar) in which cases you may simply have to rely on willpower.  

Record your progress and celebrate milestones
You can motivate yourself to not fall back into your old ways by keeping a record of your progress and celebrating milestones. You could declare these milestones on social media or have a diary to tick off each day. Celebrate by doing something that doesn’t involve your bad habit – you don’t want to give up a month of alcohol by having a binge session.   

Consider getting professional help/outside support
Some habits are more like addictions and you may find that you need outside support to help you break them. You could feel that you need to visit a counsellor or even a hypnotist. There are also groups for breaking certain bad habits such as quitting smoking, dieting and gambling. By meeting other people who are trying to give up this bad habit, you can each give each other support and share your tips and feelings. This could be useful if your feel that there’s no-one around you that can relate to your struggle to quit.  

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​by Iconic Chica Mag Contributors