How to Instantly Break Bad Habits
When people talk about breaking bad habits, the first thing that comes to the listener’s mind are habits like smoking, binge eating, or even drug abuse.
While all of these are on the top of the list of bad habits, there are still lots of other bad habits that most of us do every day, which is more dangerous than these well-known bad habits.
Giving up early, becoming easily irritated, losing our temper, and allowing our mood to swing quickly are examples of bad habits that most of us do without noticing.
These habits get unnoticed because they are not labeled “Dangerous” or “unhealthy,” just like the other habits. However, some of these habits may be as dangerous as the popular ones, and the biggest danger lies in the fact that they are usually not noticed until it’s too late.
Bad habits vs. Good habits
Habits are not always bad; anything you do continuously can be a called habit, even if it’s a good thing. Not checking your mail while working, not drinking soda while eating, and not losing your temper fast are examples of good habits that some do every day.
Most of our actions are a direct result of certain habits that we developed throughout our lives; even our responses to daily events are nothing more than patterns developed earlier in our lives which then turned into habits.
So If habits shape our lives to that extent, then we should:
- Focus on spotting the bad ones and eliminating them
- Spot the good ones and reinforce them.
It’s your choice
In every situation we face, we can either lose control and respond with our habitual pattern or stay in control. Any person can annoy you anytime and trigger your anger response, but you can choose not to become angry and to find another way to deal with the situation.
Some people have developed the habit of staying broken after a break-up; some people developed the habit of acting like victims and staying broken after they break up. Again it’s all about the habits they learned. Had those people learned how to respond correctly to a breakup, it wouldn’t have affected them that way.
Why leave your remote control with everyone in the street? Why allow everyone else to trigger the dormant habits inside of you as soon as he clicks a button?
Events can stimulate you, but you still have the option not to respond with your automatic patterns and to think rationally before you act. Don’t let others control you or force you to change your mood just because of your habitual patterns. Instead, learn how to control yourself by not responding to these external stimuli with your habitual patterns.
