Habits are hard to kill. It became a part of your life, especially your personality. You think you can’t live without it and you repeatedly perform those because they are time savers of the brain.

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Edward Buffet

You unconsciously did the particular thing without even noticing, you might not able to notice all of your habits for example, when you opened your eyes in the morning first thing you do is check your mobile, and you see if there is any notification you’ll receive on your cell. It is your habit. You came into the kitchen and check the fridge in order to have something to eat even after having dinner that’s my friend you do it because it is your habit.

To Change Your Life Change Your Habits

Some habits are healthy ones, we like to stick to them for example yoga, exercise, walking, always eating breakfast, staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, waking up early in the morning, etc. These are healthy ones but there are which are not healthy and you want to get rid of the particular habit.

Habit Loop

What you have to do is change the habit loop if you really want to change it. There are three things in the habit loop:

  • Cue
  • Routine
  • Reward

A cue is basically a trigger for your brain as I already mentioned that you woke up and check your cell that is the cue.

Routine is you are compelled to perform that particular task, it’s like you are compelled to check your cell because this is what you do every single day.

Reward you gain benefit from the behavior you actually do.

You need to understand how the habit operates by diagnosing its cue, routine, and reward. This will help you to gain power over it and begin making changes you seek to make.

  • What is the Habit? _________________________
  • What is the Cue? __________________________
  • What is the Routine? _______________________
  • What is the Reward? _______________________

Things you actually do to get rid of bad habits are as follows:

  • Make a list of habits you want to get rid of. It can be any kind of habit either smoking cigarettes, biting fingernails, drinking tea, hair picking, etc.
  • Identify the cause. In order to change the habit you need to identify why you actually do that. If you are using way too much social media may be because you felt bored. To identify the cause behind it.
  • Remove the cause. If possible once you know about the cause then you will be able to remove it in order to change your habit.
  • Replace the habit. Research in 2011 suggests that replacing a habit with an alternate behavior is a good way to change or break a habit. Instead of reaching for a cigarette when you’re stressed, try stress management techniques — such as taking a walk or meditation — to find relief. When anxiety has you chewing on your nails again, some deep breathing exercises might help ease your feelings.
  • Start with small changes. You don’t need to change all of your bad habits at once try with the little ones and try one by one and stick to changing only one bad habit at a time.
  • Allow slip us. You are a human being with feelings and emotions. Every human is allowed to make mistakes, maybe there is a time come when you fall back, but that’s okay. You don’t need to beat yourself up but try not to repeat that.
  • Give Rewards. If you are trying to change your habit and you make progress even if it’s a little one but it is still progress, reward yourself. It helps you motivate and encourages you for the effort that you made.

References

Duhigg, C. (2014). The Power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. New York: Random House. Habit Formation Basics. (2015). Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/habit-formation

Adriaanse MA, et al. (2011). Breaking habits with implementation intentions: A test of underlying processes.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167211399102