Breaking and Finding Habits

Today we are going to get back into some self reflection subject matter. When we deny ourselves the use of a bad habit without replacing the bad habit with a good habit we are more than likely to fail and revert back to our bad habits.

We are creatures of habit. We humans like to have structure in our lives. For example, we all have a morning ritual that sets our day into motion. When our morning rituals are interrupted or disturbed it usually sets our day off on the wrong foot. We typically eat at the same time everyday. Our meal time habit helps us track our day and break it down into more manageable chunks or blocks of time. Our days and nights are filled with all sorts of these structures and habits. We also have the habits that we fall into when our days are not going quite as planned. These habits sometimes become our destructive habits.

We will at times adjust our daily rituals and habits in order to improve our productivity and efficiency. We view these changes as positives. They allow for more time for other things we want to do or deem important to do. The issue we run into is what do we do to change the bad habits we fall back into when we are going through a rough patch.

Trying to deny our bad habit is a good thing to do to a degree. Like In stated before, if we do not replace a bad habit with a good habit our chances of successfully avoiding the bad habits diminish greatly. Remember we are creatures of habit. If you want to eliminate a bad habit, you must replace it with a good habit. Let's say you have a bad habit of smoking when life is not going as planned or when you get bored and don't know what to do with yourself, but you hate it when you grab for the nervous cigarette habit. Instead of smoking, why not step outside and go walk for the same amount of time that it would take to smoke the cigarette. The fresh air will help clear the mind and offer a refresh on how you are feeling. Not to mention the benefit you get both physically and mentally when you expend that nervous energy.

There are two things that hold us back from making these changes. Number one, you need to respect the power the bad habit has over you. It has been there for awhile and it does not want to let go. Which brings us to the second one. YOU MUST BE WILLING TO DO THE WORK to make these changes happen. When you recognize and accept these two, there is only one thing holding you back and that one thing is you! Don't hold yourself back. Be your own agent of change and start to make it happen today.