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7 Tips For Breaking Bad Habits & Getting Better Every Day

How many bad habits do you have? How can you break them? You’re about to learn how to stop bad habits and make yourself better every day by changing your routine, taking responsibility, and rewarding yourself along the way. Before we get started, let’s talk about bad habits in general so you know exactly what we’re talking about!

By TestPublished 2 years ago 8 min read
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1. Define the specific bad habit

The more specific you can be, the better. The same goes for how to break a bad habit. Don’t just say you want to quit smoking; instead, say I want to quit smoking menthol cigarettes or I want to stop eating junk food.

You know your habits better than anyone else does and that makes you an expert in knowing what needs fixing. Defining them is a great first step toward figuring out how to break them and get better every day.

Although many behaviors and activities fall under the bad habits umbrella, it’s helpful to pinpoint exactly what behavior you want to break. Are you struggling with eating too much? Smoking?

Spending too much time online? It can be helpful to reflect on what your specific bad habit is because knowing that will help you hone in on how best to break it. So spend some time thinking about what your particular bad habit is and come up with a few ideas for how to stop doing it.

It’s one thing to understand that you have a bad habit, but it’s another thing entirely to actually identify your bad habit and define it as specifically as possible.

How often do you feel like you should stop doing something? Be as precise as possible when identifying your habits. The more specific, actionable, and positive your goal statement is, the easier it will be to achieve.

2. Don’t be hard on yourself

Defining your bad habit is a necessary first step in solving it. If you have trouble with procrastination, for example, what exactly do you mean by procrastination?

In most cases, procrastination means putting off small things that are easy to do and will contribute to big goals. Unfortunately, in its early stages, procrastination may not seem so clear-cut. How do you know if something is a bad habit?

Give yourself a break! You’re not going to quit your bad habit overnight. If you slip up or start procrastinating, don’t give up completely — or beat yourself up. Just figure out why you slipped, take a step back and get back on track.

Understand how to be consistent: To get rid of that bad habit for good, it helps to understand why we do things. When you give up on a bad habit or stop beating yourself up over your failures, you’ll be in a much better position to change.

It may not seem like it at first, but giving yourself positive feedback can help break bad habits and develop new ones. Don’t allow frustration or guilt to prevent you from being your best self — encourage yourself every step of the way instead.

3. Identify your triggers

Negative thought patterns have indeed been shown to lead to negative behaviors, but if you’re looking to change your bad habits, it’s not about forgetting how you got there in the first place.

It’s about learning from it. Instead of focusing on how many times you might have done something a certain way — whether good or bad — focus on what worked and what didn’t. This can help make your actions more automatic so they become part of your habitual routine.

With practice, they won’t be as big of a deal and will simply be done without question. This positive approach can help eliminate guilt and frustration that are often associated with habit formation (or breaking).

The best way to keep from falling into bad habits is to avoid your triggers altogether. That sounds simple enough, but pinpointing your triggers can be tricky.

Identify what situations (social, emotional, etc.) typically lead you down a bad path. Next time you find yourself in one of these scenarios, think of an alternate activity that will redirect your focus and keep you out of trouble.

One of the most important first steps to breaking bad habits is identifying what triggers your bad behavior. Usually, it’s when you’re bored, tired, or upset. There are a couple of ways to find out exactly when and why you go off track.

4. Be positive

There’s a reason why you do bad habits — because they give you a little rush. If you replace those bad habits with good ones, they might not seem like fun (especially at first), but they also won’t come with as much risk of negative consequences.

Try focusing on one or two positive things that happen each day. Or take a moment before bed and think about three good things that happened throughout your day — you can even share them with someone close to you if it helps motivate you to keep going.

These small exercises go a long way toward making sure your attitude stays upbeat and makes it easier to stay productive.

There’s a lot of truth to the old saying, fake it till you make it. However, faking positivity won’t get you very far. Instead, try to adopt a positive attitude on purpose by choosing to focus on and appreciate what is good in your life.

If you want to make real progress, be positive. It doesn’t matter if you have been struggling with a particular habit for years or months — today is always a fresh start.

Start your day with a good night’s sleep and some exercise; hit your goals early in the day; stay positive when things go wrong. You can do it!

5. Take action

Take action. If you want to break bad habits, or if you’re looking to develop new habits, it’s going to require some effort on your part. As Stephen Covey would say, First things first. Put in a little time and get yourself into that habit-forming state of doing something every day for 30 days.

Don’t just plan for what you won't — do something about it! How many times have you set goals but didn’t follow through? What changed from today when you woke up to tomorrow when you went back to bed?

Nobody can change until they are ready to change, but it’s not just about taking action — it’s about taking effective action. It’s hard to break a bad habit, which is why most people don’t do it.

They take half-hearted action and then quit when they feel discouraged, defeated, or bored. When you are trying to make a change in your life (whether it be breaking a bad habit or starting a new healthy routine), remember that progress comes with small steps.

The easiest way to develop new habits is to implement them into your life through action. If you want to break a bad habit, set up specific triggers for your bad behaviors and replace them with healthy, productive ones that occur just before or after those bad behaviors.

Don’t let yourself fall into a routine of doing something out of habit; instead, create one that works for you. It might take a few weeks, but eventually, it will become natural.

6. Reward yourself

It’s a lot easier to break a bad habit when you know exactly how long it’s been going on. It can be tempting to say, I haven’t watched TV in five years, but that probably isn’t true — you probably just haven’t counted or thought about it in a while.

Do yourself (and future you) a favor by writing down every time you did your bad habit over several weeks, then summarize your findings into one number — how many times you went over your limit or exceeded your goal.

Once you know exactly how much time and energy you’re wasting on something like watching too much TV or eating junk food at night, overcoming an unhealthy habit will seem like a cakewalk.

To break a bad habit, you’ll have to replace it with something better. One tactic is to reward yourself for each day you go without slipping up.

The easiest way to break bad habits and get better is by rewarding yourself for progress. The self-satisfaction that comes from conquering a difficult challenge or milestone makes it easier to keep going.

This means you’ll be on your way to getting better faster than ever. See, motivation is like a battery: You have a finite amount each day, so use it wisely. Rewarding yourself for progress ensures you don’t deplete your supply too early in pursuit of your goal.

7. Keep track of your progress

It may sound silly, but it can be easy to get discouraged if you’re not seeing results. The best way to keep yourself motivated? Keep track of your progress by tracking your habits! Make sure you write down any slip-ups or bad days and come up with a new plan of attack for when they happen again.

This is a great time to use that if-then strategy we talked about — in other words, if X happens, then I will do Y instead. Here’s an example: If I eat junk food for lunch, then I will take a walk after lunch. Simple enough, right?

Just make sure you follow through and try not to beat yourself up too much if it doesn’t work perfectly at first! To get a better sense of how well you’re doing, track your progress by keeping a journal and writing down your daily habits.

Doing so can help you be more aware of which new habits are sticking and which ones aren’t — and why. Plus, these updates can make it easier to notice patterns, like if you have trouble practicing piano every day after work but always manage to meditate at home in the morning.

Did you know that if you don’t write down your progress each day, you’re more likely to fail? Each day, take a few minutes to think about your progress and reflect on how far you’ve come.

This will help keep your motivation going, but it can also provide valuable insights into what might be holding you back.

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