by Lory Costello-Neeley
Bad habits interrupt your life. They also prevent you from accomplishing goals and waste your time and energy, which can send you into a mental and physical tail-spin.
What causes bad habits? Most are caused by two things, says self-improvement expert James Clear. “Bad habits are simply a way of dealing with stress and boredom,” he says. “Everything from biting your nails to overspending on a shopping spree to wasting time on the internet can be a simple response to stress and boredom.”
Sometimes the stress or boredom that is on the surface is actually caused by deeper issues, according to Clear. These issues can be tough to think about, but if you’re serious about making changes then you have to be honest with yourself. You can teach yourself new and healthy ways to deal with stress and boredom, which you can then substitute in place of your bad habits.
Recognizing the causes of your bad habits is crucial to overcoming them. Here are three steps to help take control of your bad habits from life coach Miklas Goeke.
Step 1: Make your environment as temptation-free as possible. If your phone is a distraction, remove it from your room completely. If you are trying to stop eating sweets, do not bring them home in the first place.
Step 2: Survive the first week and use minimal success plus maximum encouragement to develop a great mindset. Think baby steps. If you’re trying to spend less money, limit how much cash you bring on shopping trips so you are forced to budget. If you slip up, try not to beat yourself up about it.
Step 3: Pick a good habit to focus on in order to get out of the negative feedback loop, and into a positive one. Replace a bad habit with a new positive habit. When you feel the need to bite your nails, do sit ups or pushups instead. Treat yourself to a manicure after your nails grow out.
Step 4: Plan for failure. We all slip up every now and then. “When you screw up, (spend too much time online, eat bad foods, or sleep in,) it doesn’t make you a bad person,” psychologist Steve Kamb says. “It makes you human. Welcome to
the club.”
Everyone gets off track—what separates those who succeed in kicking their bad habits from everyone else, is how quickly they try again.
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