5 ways to break free from bad habits

What is it about life that attracts us toward bad habits and makes good habits such a struggle to start and maintain?

Conceptually, we KNOW that bad habits are bad. Conceptually, we KNOW that good habits are good. And yet, most of us are magnetized toward the bad habits. And once they become part of our lives, they become so difficult to break free.

Here are 5 ways to break free of bad habits for good.

1. Keep the big picture in mind

At the risk of over-simplifying, I think a lot of bad habits usually feel good right now but have generally negative consequences in the future while good habits feel difficult right now but have generally positive consequences in the future. By keeping the big picture in mind, we can remember that our choices today will influence our future.

List your dreams and goals for the future and figure out how your bad habits are “costing you” in achieving those dreams. In my experience, bad habits often come at a price of time, money, and health (but there are other factors, too).

2. Replace bad habits with good habits

I used to drink TONS of coffee every day. The habit was hard to break not because of a caffeine addiction but because of boredom — I liked the ritual of working with a steaming cup of coffee in my hand. I’ve heard the same of people who smoke: They need something to do with their hands.

Rather than trying to break a bad habit and just stop altogether, try replacing the bad habit with a different (positive) habit. Instead of going outside for a smoke, take a walk. If you go for a walk every time you want to go for a smoke, you replace your bad smoking habit with your good exercise habit.

3. Forget stopping altogether

The idea of stopping a habit completely is not appealing. And it seems impossible. Instead, draw inspiration from one of the most powerful habit-breaking systems we have: People in Alcoholics Anonymous never say they’ve stopped drinking altogether, they only decide not to drink today. (And then tomorrow, they decide not to drink that day too). “Forever” is too hard of a timeline.

One great way to stop a bad habit is to pick a timeframe and adopt that timeframe only as a challenge to go without doing the habit. For example: “I won’t eat junk food for a month” or “I won’t I won’t watch TV for 3 weeks.

A month is a good timeframe. (Similarly, I use a six week challenge for my exercise habit. Instead of deciding to workout for the rest of my life, which sounds nearly impossible, I just challenge myself to six weeks at a time. And when the six weeks is up, I do another six weeks. That has worked for me for years.)

Depending on the hold that the habit has on your life, you might need to choose an even shorter timeframe, like a week or even a day: “I won’t smoke for 24 hours”, for example. Or, “I won’t say negative things about myself for 1 week”.

4. Don’t try to do too much at once.

It would be great if we could just hit the reset button in our lives and suddenly fix all the stuff we wanted to change all at once. But it doesn’t work that way. So don’t bother trying to change too many habits at once. Pick one habit and attack it. Put your full focus into breaking free from it.

Once you completely overcome it (which might be a few days or even a few months down the road), move on to the next habit.

5. Find something that inspires you and make it your mantra

When the going gets tough, we can snap back into old habits really easily. For example, when I’m trying to break a bad habit, I usually find the first couple days are no problem. The real problem is day 3, 4, 5, and so on… THAT’S when the difficulty sets in. So each time you try to correct a bad habit, you will encounter a difficult point. Surpassing that point is the hardest part and it’s the time when most habit-breaking attempts fail.

Figure out something that inspires you — it could be a picture of your loved ones or it could be a motivational saying. When I was trying to break a procrastination habit, I kept reminding myself “Everything I want is on the other side of hard work”… and it was inspiring enough for me to push through.

There are many other ways to break free from bad habits. I’ll blog more about it in the future but I’d love to hear from you! What are some of your best habit-busting tips?

Posted on January 31, 2012