Habits, in general terms, can be thought of as regular tendencies or practices that become ingrained in individuals over time. Habits are an essential part of normal day-to-day functioning. They give us a framework under which to work and a set of stock behaviors and responses that allow us to function. While this is true, not all habits are positive. In fact, many are not.
People often talk about bad habits, and what they mean by this are habits that inhibit one’s ability to optimally function. Simple examples can be things such as frivolous spending, poor eating patterns, and staying up too late. Many individuals struggle with bad habits. They often find certain habits are so ingrained they can be nearly impossible to change. Others haven’t fully realized, or admitted to themselves, that certain habits of theirs leads to undesirable outcomes in their personal life.
The modern tech age has given us many more opportunities to develop bad habits. For example, online shopping has made it harder for those with poor spending habits to keep their desires in check. Those who already spent too much time on their computer have likely doubled their screen time with the popularization of smartphones and tablets.
This being said, the digital information age has made it easier than ever for individuals with bad habits to find practical, quality, advice on how to change their bad habits into good ones. In this article, we will cover just this. To begin we will look at the most common types of bad habits as well as how they affect us and follow with a list of tips and tricks one can implement to change their habits for the better.
Most Common Bad Habits
Poor Eating Habits: This is perhaps one of the most commonly seen poor habits around the world, especially in western nations. “The last few decades have seen a rapid increase in the overall pace of day-to-day life and people often find themselves with less time to ensure they eat a healthy, well-balanced meal. This, coupled with the fact that quick, inexpensive food is often available on every corner in a metropolitan area, makes it easy for people to fall into poor eating habits.” writes Jim Benson, a lifestyle blogger at Britstudent. This habit can be especially easy to break because doing so requires spending more time and money on preparing quality, healthy food.
Poor Sleeping Habits: This can be broken up into two, often related habits. The first involves sleeping too late and not getting the required seven to eight hours of sleep most people need to function effectively and the second involves viewing computer, tablet, or smartphone screens immediately before bed. The later can be especially bad as these types of screens emit what is known as blue light. Many studies have shown the blue light interferes with the brain’s normal production of melatonin, a sleep hormone needed for the regulating of proper sleep patterns. This bad habit can be somewhat mitigated by installing a blue light filter application on the necessary devices.
Excessive Negativity: This is a bad habit shared by many people. It is often easier to be negative than it is to be positive. For one reason or not people have been made to focus heavily on the negative aspects of their life. “There is a type of positive feedback loop which develops after a while; the individual begins to enjoy thinking negative thoughts over positive ones.” writes Jim Henderson, a content writer at Australia2write.com. This bad habit can be one of the most difficult ones to break.
How To Change Bad Habits
Establish Intent, Identify Source Of Problem: This can often be the hardest part for people, especially those who do not want to admit to themselves that they have a problem. For those that can, the first step is identifying an outcome of one’s behavior that they do not like and want to change.
An example of this could be the person stating that they always feel tired in the morning. Once the outcome is identified the person can then look further to determine exactly which habits cause the undesirable outcome, in this case, excessive tiredness.
It is at this point the individual will examine their habits, behaviors, and motivations to determine which habits of theirs are causing the undesirable outcome. Continuing with the example of excessive tiredness, they may identify the fact that they often spend many hours in bed watching Netflix or Youtube on their computer, tablet, or smartphone. They may realize that they stay up far past the hour which they would need to go to bed to ensure they receive the appropriate amount of sleep. It is here that intent can be established. The individual writes down the exact habits they wish to change and why.
Establish A Baseline Of Current Behaviour: The purpose of the first step is to identify and define, in no uncertain terms, what it is one needs to change in order to make progress. Measuring progress can be difficult if no baseline information is recorded. One may feel as if they are improving and making progress but without some way to quantify it, there is no way to truly tell. This is why a baseline is recorded. One may ask “how many hours of sleep do I usually get per night? What time do I normally go to bed?”
By knowing the answers to this question the individual is in a much better position to determine, later on down the road, if progress has been made or not.
Create A Plan, Write It Down: Making a plan is very important, it allows for the development of concrete actions one can take in order to change their poor habits. How the plan is structured depends largely on the exact nature of the habits one is trying to get rid of. It could be as simple as “stop biting my fingernails” or it could be more complicated, broken down into smaller goals or milestones. An individual who is trying to decrease their frivolous spending and save more money may decide to decrease their spending but by bit, hitting specific milestones every few weeks or months.
Another important aspect of making a plan is identifying what triggers the exercising of bad habits. For example, poor eating habits might be related to stress. Stress eating is a common issue among many people. Stress can result from workplace conditions, relationship issues, or financial troubles. Identifying the triggers that lead to bad habits should also be identified and outlined in the plan. The plan could even include a small section where one articulates ways to avoid specific stresses.
Implement Plan: The intent is established, triggers identified, and plan drawn up. The only thing left to do is implement it. This is where one sees whether their plan is good or not. A plan should be easy to implement, with concrete steps and metrics used to define and outline positive behaviors.
One of the hardest aspects of implementing a plan is maintaining discipline, many people have trouble with this. The plan may be followed for a few days or weeks but quickly be abandoned. The longer one sticks to their plan the easier it becomes to follow. This is why breaking progress up into milestones is so important. Milestones allow a person to make progress in incremental steps, building up to the complete abolishment of the bad habit. If the milestones are not realistic the plan will ultimately fail.
Many people become discouraged because they think if they fail the first time they are simply incapable of changing their habits. More often than not the failure to implement has more to do with the plan’s shortcomings than those of the individual. Those who are serious about changing their bad habits will take what they learned from their failures and make a new plan.
Measure Progress: As outlined in the section regarding baseline measurements, one needs to be able to quantify their changes in habits. Those who stick to their plan over a period of time should be recording their progress to more effectively measure it. To revisit the poor sleeping habits example, one can determine how their average hours of sleep changes over a period of time. If in the first 3 months they have gone from five hours of sleep to six and a half hours they can see beyond any doubt that they are making progress and their habits are being changed.
Maintain Progress: Habits take a while to become ingrained, the bad habits the one is attempting to change have likely been cultivated and ingrained over many years, sometimes even decades. One cannot expect to entirely change their habits in the course of a few months. Even if they are making amazing progress, they need to keep it up for an extended period if the change is to permanent. Those who stop recording too early more often than not slip back into old habits.
Conclusion: Changing one’s habits is not an easy process. It takes a great deal of honesty with oneself, a desire to change, and a level of discipline to keep up with their program. Despite this, change is not impossible. Those who are truly committed almost always end up achieving the success they are after. It is also important to not procrastinate. Many people admit to themselves that they have a bad habit they need to change but do not act on it right away. Lack of action only causes the habit to become more embedded in a person’s behavioral patterns.
Hoyt M. McCumber is a business analyst and entrepreneur who works as a content writer at Nextcoursework.com and Phdkingdom.com. To ensure top value for his clients Hoyt is always up to date with the latest trends in business development, business tech, and marketing. He has also been a life coach for many years, helping many entrepreneurs grow their brand and business.
