First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you.
27th October ,2007
We are what our habits are. Some habits and good and the others are bad. Read this article to understand how to discover and improve your bad habits and tips on breaking bad habits
2. Schedule the plan for improvement
Set a timeline for improving a particular habit. Setting a timeline does not mean that you should give yourself a vague time like 1 month or 6 months. Give yourself a date to improve. Make a promise to yourself. If you think that something will take you 6 months to achieve; give yourself that much time and set a date.
3. Prepare and Carry a Habit Breaker Card
Prepare and carry a habit breaker card in your wallet. The card should be the size of a Credit Card or Playing Card. On one side of the card mention the habit that you want to break and on the other side mention the date by which you wish to achieve it.
Every morning, evening and night you should look at this card and visualize within your mind that you have come out of this habit. Visualize the benefits of eradicating the bad habit; visualize in complete details.
4. Monitor your improvement
Keep monitoring your improvement. The practice of staying far off from the bad habit is maintained for the first 3 – 4 days with ease. The problem starts after that. Read the last section to understand how to cope with a situation when you get drawn towards temptations. Make a note of the number of times you have deviated from your actual plan of improvement and at the end of the week evaluate the situation. If you feel that you have done reasonably well then give yourself a small reward in the form of chocolates or something that you like.
Tips on dealing with temptations
Temptations will come and go; remaining calm at that time will help. The reason why we have temptations is because your body is comfortable with that behavior. As a human, accepting a new way of working is a bit difficult and hence you get “temptation attacks”.
So, how do you deal with it? Relax and close your eyes during such times. Compose yourself and take a deep breath. Visualize yourself improving and enjoy that visualization. Once you feel a bit relaxed; locate your Habit Breaker Card. Read the habit over and over again and check the date by which you want to achieve it. This should motivate you.
Miscellaneous tips on improving bad habits
1. Use affirmations to deal with bad habits Affirmations can be very useful to deal with bad habits. Affirmations have a magical impact on the way you start looking and believing things. Read this article to understand the Secrets of Effective Affirmations
2. Hypnosis
If all that you try does not help you get out of a bad habit; then consider using hypnosis as a remedy to cure your bad habits. This should however be the last resort.
