Successful People Are Simply Those With Successful Habits

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Who doesn’t have a bad habit? It would be hard to find someone that you know that won’t admit to having some type of bad habit. These habits can be related to your health, your relationship or to your business.

One of the hardest things about breaking a bad habit is getting enough motivation to actually take steps to break it. Some of the most well-known ways to break a habit include:

• Quitting cold turkey
• Setting a date to quit your habit
• Replacing the bad habit with a good one

All of these methods can easily work for you if you are truly ready to break your habit. Would you say that you currently have the desire to quit your habit? Or is it something that you keep putting off until next week?

We are all busy with our lives and this is why quitting cold turkey or setting a quitting date do not always work. The minute you tell yourself that you can’t have or do something, you end up thinking about it all day long. Small children are a fantastic example of this. When you tell them that they can’t have something, they drive you nuts asking for it.

So what can you do instead?

Your approach to quitting your bad habit needs to be a little different. Let’s say for example that you want to quit eating sugar. The minute you place this item on an ‘I can never have it’ list, you constantly crave it.

How about approaching it this way

Get up tomorrow morning and tell yourself that you are just going to get through one day without eating sugar and if you end up eating sugar the day after, that is okay, but just avoid sugar for today. You can also make a game of it. You will find it much easier to say no when offered something that contains sugar because there is always tomorrow.

What you will discover is that when tomorrow comes you only have to get through one day without eating sugar. Again it will be much easier to manage and you will find that your motivation increases.

This is not to say you can never eat a piece of cake again. Honestly, who doesn’t want to have a piece of birthday or a slice of wedding cake when offered? All you are doing is not making sweets treats a huge or major part of your life. Instead, you can easily reserve these things as ‘treats’ for a special occasion.

And remember, I am using sugar as 1 example here, but this can be applied to anything you would like to cut down or completely changed in your life.

Here are some steps for you to consider:

1. Try and determine what it is that makes you perform your bad habit. Is it getting upset or frustrated with someone? Write down the reason and keep it somewhere that you can see it.
2. If you are letting someone’s reaction to something force you into eating, switch the eating up with another action. Maybe go for a walk, have a cup of tea or coffee or call up a friend. Don’t let your habit rule your emotions.
3. Is your bad habit affecting your health, do you feel stiff and sore or know that you are putting on the pounds, but hate to admit it? Think about how you will feel if you continue in this way, are you ready to start feeling worse about yourself?

Get real and acknowledge that breaking a bad habit is not going to be easy. Quite frankly, any improvement in your life will require a decision, some effort and discipline. While you do need to be aware of your choices, you don’t want this to become an obsession. Instead, take one day at a time and get through those 12 or 14 hours at a time. I am sure you will agree that this seems more doable than using another method. Plus if you do fall off the wagon, you have only ruined one day and can get back on track tomorrow.

What habit do you really desire to change? How about starting now by practising these steps?

You CAN, if you really want to.
Best of Success