How to deal with your habits

How to deal with your habits

dealing with habits and positivity

Annie M Joy

Table of content

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Conclusion

Chapter 1

A habit may be neutral, healthy, or bad. Ten minutes of daily stretching or turning to meditation during times of stress could be considered good habits. A bad habit may include texting and driving or biting your nails. Neutral habits include things like consistently eating the same cereal brand or traveling the same route to work.

Breathing and blinking are examples of unconscious acts that do not qualify as habits since they are instinctive rather than acquired.

HOW DO HABITS GROW?

The majority of habits start as deliberate, purposeful actions. For instance, a parent could tell a small child to wash their hands before eating. The child may first simply wash their hands to receive praise from a parent. They might require prompts to complete the activity before each meal.

The youngster will eventually become accustomed to the process and stop needing reminders as the washing habit is repeated. Whether the parent encourages the behavior or not, they will wash their hands before eating. Now that the action is more motivated by context than a specific incentive, it can be referred to as a habit.

Making a mental shortcut is how habits are formed. The ritual of washing one's hands before meals involves a lot of stages at the beginning. The young person must go to the sink, turn on the water, put soap on their hands, and then dry them. But once the habit takes hold, the brain starts to classify these actions as a single "chunk." In other words, it begins to see a four-step procedure as a single, basic action known as hand-washing.

However, habits can also help you conserve mental energy. Making judgments requires energy, so if you engage in certain activities automatically, you may have more energy to concentrate on more difficult options. Reflexive habits, however, can be more difficult to identify and prevent. It can be challenging to stop habits like nail-biting in the heat of the moment since the brain encodes habits as a single action.

According to research, it takes 66 days on average for habits to emerge. However, this procedure might take as little as 18 days or as much as 254 days to complete. The complexity of the action, a person's temperament, and other factors all affect how long it takes to develop a habit.

IS IT AN ADDICTION OR A HABIT?

Despite their close ties, habits and addictions are not always the same. Any deliberate action you regularly engage in is referred to be a habit. When you engage in an activity excessively and are unable to quit or control it, you are said to be addicted.

For instance, a person with a habit of exercising might go three times each week. They can easily skip a day at the gym if they are sick or have an emergency. On the other side, a person with an addiction to exercise can work out for hours each day without getting enough rest. To avoid feeling guilty, restless, or angry, the person may feel obligated to exercise.

If you have an addiction, there's a good probability that you also have a lot of habits that revolve around that addiction. You can start watching TV before you start drinking or smoking in a specific place. If you seek addiction treatment, whether it be through outpatient therapy or a residential treatment facility, the main focus of your care will probably be on ending your addictive behaviors.

Chapter 2

How to Stop an Addiction (and Make It Stick)

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with habits; everyone has them. Some are quite helpful, like when you automatically switch off the lights when you leave a room or set out your clothing the night before work.

However, some habits—like biting your nails, consuming caffeine too late in the day, or repeatedly hitting the snooze—might not be as advantageous.

It can be challenging to break bad habits, especially if you've been doing them for a while. But a better grasp of how habits begin helps make the process easier.

establishing a habit

Several ideas exist about the formation of habits. One of the three Rs is the following:

1. Reminder: This is a trigger or cue, and it might be a conscious action like flushing the toilet, or it might be a sensation like anxiety.

2. Routine: This is the action that the trigger is linked to. While nervousness prompts you to bite your nails, flushing the toilet signals that it's time to wash your hands. Routine behavior can develop through repeated actions.

3. Reward: A behavior's related reward also aids in the development of habits. When you do something that makes you happy or makes you feel better, your brain releases dopamine, making you want to do it again.

Here are some suggestions to help you kick that ingrained, difficult behavior while keeping the three Rs in mind.

Remember that identifying your triggers is the first step in creating a habit. The first step in overcoming your repetitive habits is to recognize the triggers that lead to them.

Track your habit for a few days to determine whether it exhibits any trends.

Note details such as:

Where does the repetitive behavior occur?

2. When in the day?

3. How does it make you feel?

4. Does it include other people?

5. Does it follow another event immediately?

Let's assume you want to cut back on staying up late. After observing your behavior for a few days, you notice that if you start watching TV or talking to friends after supper, you tend to stay up later. However, if you read or go for a walk, you can sleep earlier.

On weeknights, you resolve to quit watching TV and switch off your phone by nine o'clock. It becomes more difficult to maintain the habit of staying up late when the trigger, such as watching TV or talking to friends, is removed.

Pay attention to your motivation for changing: Why do you wish to stop or alter a particular habit? According to 2012 Trusted Source research, it might be simpler to alter your behavior if the change is advantageous or valuable to you.

Think about your motivation for changing the behavior and any advantages you anticipate coming from the change for a few minutes. You might be able to come up with a few more by listing the reasons that haven't occurred to you yet.

Write down your justifications on a piece of paper and post it somewhere you'll see them frequently, like your refrigerator or bathroom mirror, to boost your motivation.

Seeing the list can help you remember the change you're attempting to implement. Your list serves as a reminder if you do happen to relapse into the behavior.

Collaborate with a buddy to break a bad habit: If you and a friend or partner wish to stop doing something, try to do it together.

Say that both of you want to quit smoking. It can be difficult to manage cravings on your own. The desires won't go away if you quit with a companion. But if you face difficulties alongside someone else, it could be simpler to deal with them.

Make it a point to support one another through obstacles and celebrate one another's victories.

Even if they don't have any habits they want to change, a friend can still support you. Think about sharing the habit you're trying to kick with a close friend. They can support you when you're feeling discouraged and gently nudge you toward your objective if they see you reverting to old patterns.

Practice mindfulness to help you become more conscious of your thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Simply monitoring impulses related to your habit without passing judgment on them or responding to them is this practice.

It might be simpler for you to consider different options when you become more aware of these repetitive actions and the triggers that cause them, such as avoiding reminder cues or resisting the cravings.

You can become more aware of how your habit impacts your daily life by engaging in mindfulness practices. You might get more motivated to try to break the habit as you start to notice these impacts.

Replace the bad habit with a better one: Rather than just trying to stop the bad habit, you could find it easier to break it if you replace it with a better one.

Let's say you want to stop eating candy at work when you're hungry. If all you do is try to stay away from the candy bowl, you can relapse if you can't control your appetite. However, you

have another snack choice if you bring in a Tupperware of dry fruit and nuts to keep at your desk.

They want to continue the new pattern that emerges as you practice the new behavior. The impulse to continue engaging in this activity may eventually exceed the desire to continue engaging in the old habit if you start to reap the benefits of the new habit, such as more energy and less sugar crash.

Set reminders for yourself:

Placing stickers, sticky notes, or other visual cues near the places where your habitual behavior occurs will help you stop and consider before you act when something prompts you.

Here are some suggestions:

Do you want to stop consuming soda with every meal? Consider sticking little stickers on your refrigerator that you'll notice when you reach for a can. Remembering to switch off the lights when you leave a room might be difficult. Post a reminder for yourself on the door or light switch. Want to start keeping your keys in a specific location so you won't lose them as often? When you go home, put your keys in a dish where you can see them right away.

Be ready to make mistakes: Changing a habit can be difficult, however, some habits may be simpler to break than others.

Change is difficult, and it's very easy to go back into old habits when the new ones haven't taken root yet. You won't lose those behaviors in a day because they took time to develop.

Try to psychologically get ready for mistakes so that you won't feel bad or defeated if you do. You may resolve to write down three bullet points on how you felt while engaging in the habit, or you could perform a brief breathing exercise.

Try to grow from your mistakes. Ask yourself honestly what went wrong and whether adjusting your strategy could help you avoid repeating the mistake.

Give up the "all-or-nothing" mentality:

When attempting to change a habit, accepting that you will make a few mistakes is one thing; coming up with a plan is quite another. Another issue is preventing disappointment and failure when you do make a mistake.

Can I do this? you might think if you revert to the old behavior. You could start to question your abilities and feel like giving up.

Instead, Myers advises focusing on your accomplishments. Perhaps you've been attempting to stop smoking and have been successful three days in a row. On the fourth day, you have a cigarette and then feel bad the rest of the night.

After a few days without smoking, Myers stated, "having a cigarette doesn't take away the past days." Keep in mind that you have tomorrow to choose differently.

Instead of perfection, you're seeking movement in a specific direction, Myers continued. Instead of concentrating on your final result, remember that anything you do to get closer to it is beneficial.

Begin modestly:

Trying to break several bad behaviors at once? When you first decide to modify unhelpful habits, the idea of your improved, new self can be a strong motivator.

This is occasionally effective If the habits are related, it can be simpler to handle them all at once. For instance, stopping drinking and smoking at the same time could make the most sense if you always do those two things together.

But experts often advise beginning modestly. One habit at a time should be changed. Even if these measures first appear too tiny or doable, attacking behaviors in stages might still be beneficial.

You may start by giving up soda with supper for a week, going back to the example of drinking soda with every meal. The following week, increase it to not being served with lunch or dinner.

On weeknights, you resolve to quit watching TV and switch off your

phone by nine o'clock. It becomes more difficult to maintain the habit of staying up late when the trigger, such as watching TV or talking to friends, is removed.

Pay attention to your motivation for changing: Why do you wish to stop or alter a particular habit? According to 2012 Trusted Source research, it might be simpler to alter your behavior if the change is advantageous or valuable to you.

Think about your motivation for changing the behavior and any advantages you anticipate coming from the change for a few minutes. You might be able to come up with a few more by listing the reasons that haven't occurred to you yet.

Write down your justifications on a piece of paper and post it somewhere you'll see them frequently, like your refrigerator or bathroom mirror, to boost your motivation.

Seeing the list can help you remember the change you're attempting to implement. Your list serves as a reminder if you do happen to relapse into the behavior.

Collaborate with a buddy to break a bad habit: If you and a friend or partner wish to stop doing something, try to do it together.

Say that both of you want to quit smoking: It can be difficult to manage cravings on your own. The desires won't go away if you quit with a companion. But if you face difficulties alongside someone else, it could be simpler to deal with them.

Make it a point to support one another through obstacles and celebrate one another's victories.

Even if they don't have any habits they want to change, a friend can still support you. Think about sharing the habit you're trying to kick with a close friend. They can support you when you're feeling discouraged and gently nudge you toward your objective if they see you reverting to old patterns.

Practice mindfulness to help you become more conscious of your thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Simply monitoring impulses related to your habit without passing judgment on them or responding to them is this practice.

It might be simpler for you to consider different options when you become more aware of these repetitive actions and the triggers that cause them, such as avoiding reminder cues or resisting the cravings.

You can become more aware of how your habit impacts your daily life by engaging in mindfulness practices. You might get more motivated to try to break the habit as you start to notice these impacts.

Change the behavior by adopting a new one.

If you try to replace the undesirable activity with a new behavior rather than just trying to cease the undesirable behavior, you could find it easier to break the habit.

Let's say you want to stop eating candy at work when you're hungry. If all you do is try to stay away from the candy bowl, you can relapse if you can't control your appetite. However, you have another snack choice if you bring in a Tupperware of dry fruit and nuts to keep at your desk.

They want to continue the new pattern that emerges as you practice the new behavior. The impulse to continue engaging in this activity may eventually exceed the desire to continue engaging in the old habit if you start to reap the benefits of the new habit, such as more energy and less sugar crash.

It can be quite beneficial to swap negative behaviors like substance abuse for healthier ones. But it's crucial to keep in mind that even "healthy" habits, like exercise, can become excessive. When practiced excessively, even "healthy" eating can have detrimental consequences.

Rewarding yourself for accomplishments will help you stay motivated. It can be quite challenging to break a habit. Be sure to recognize your progress and attempt to reward yourself along the road. You can improve your confidence and increase your motivation to keep trying with even tiny motivators, like telling yourself how well you're doing.

When you concentrate on your accomplishments, you're less inclined to give up or talk to yourself negatively, both of which might undermine your motivation.

Celebrate your successes, Erika said. "Maybe you're not ready to run a marathon, but if you can run a mile this week easier than you could last week, that's a success," the coach said.

Self-care is important because it makes it simpler for many people to make adjustments in their lives that are for the better.

It can be more stressful to try to quit a habit if you are also coping with other difficulties, such as work stress, marital issues, or health issues.

It's crucial to put your well-being first while trying to change a habit. This not only increases your chances of success but also aids in maintaining your functionality in the face of difficulties.

Try this advice for self-care: Make time for a good night's sleep. eat consistent, wholesome meals. If you have any long-term worries, consult your doctor. Try to exercise regularly most days. Spend at least a little time each day engaging in hobbies, relaxing, or doing other activities that lift your spirits.

You don't have to go it alone, you know:

With a little work and commitment, you might be able to break some habits on your own, like buying lunch every day or missing the gym.

However, the assistance of a qualified mental health professional can significantly improve your chances of success if you want to address more profound habits, such as emotional eating, compulsions, alcohol abuse, or addiction.

A therapist or counselor can provide direction and support because working through these problems on your own can be difficult.

An expert in mental health can assist you:

determine the alterations you wish to make. investigate any barriers to change. Find out why you want to change. get perspective on your development. learn to combat and manage your negative self-talk.

According to Myers, "the accountability of routinely meeting with someone can also provide the structure that supports the adjustments you've made."

Although it may not seem like it now, your new behaviors will eventually become a part of your routine. They might eventually become just as automatic as your old behaviors.

Chapter 3

Techniques for ending undesirable behaviors

Chain smoking is one example of a harmful habit, as is continuously viewing cat videos on YouTube. Habits are difficult to break, especially if you enjoy them. But it's conceivable. Take a look at these seven methods to guide you.

If you wish to alter your behavior, this can assist. You're trying to break a terrible habit. It's time for a fresh start.

1 Treat yourself.

Utilize the power of reinforcement to consolidate your accomplishments. Reward yourself after making little improvements to stop your habit. Use the time, money, or resources you've saved by giving up your unhealthy habit to treat yourself to something special. These consistent "rewards" will motivate you to persevere.

2. Find motivation

Understanding your motivation for change is essential if you want to successfully stop a habit. List the rationales you have. What benefits might change bring? What drawbacks would continuing the behavior bring about? Keep a copy of this list on hand in case you need to refer to it for inspiration.

3. Examine the behavior.

How, when, where, and why do you practice your habit? When did you last do it? If you wish to alter your behavior, it is essential to understand it. Take notes in a journal as you track your habit over a week or a month. Try to spot any patterns. The cornerstone for change is awareness.

4. Create a strategy and track your success.

Concentrate on the solution after you've determined the issue. How will you achieve success, and what does it look like? Going cold turkey might work for some people, but it may be safer to start small and cross off more and bigger accomplishments as you go. Whatever your plan of action, decide on a deadline by which you hope to be free of your habit. Set up checkpoints for yourself along the route and monitor your development.

5. Change your behavior

According to research, a poor habit can be broken by substituting other activities for undesirable behaviors. Go for a quick run instead of smoking a cigarette, or clench your fists instead of biting your nails. Try to identify the demands that are being met by your unhealthy habit and then satisfy those needs with a healthier activity.

6. Avoid going it alone

If you have a support system, quitting a problematic habit will be a lot simpler. To break a habit with a friend, set a challenge. Inform people of your strategy and request that they refrain from the behavior around you. Visit the ReachOut Forums to interact with people who are making changes. Another choice is to get expert assistance.

7. Keep going

Expect some lapses in your commitment to long-term habit change. When trying to alter behavior, slipups are entirely normal. Consider these losses an opportunity to learn what went wrong and how to go better in the future rather than a reason to give up.

Chapter 4

How to Develop Long-Lasting Positive Habits

What is the ideal diet for staying healthy? What about the best exercise regimen? Or perhaps the self-care routine that will keep you content and calm?

The "best" positive behaviors are those that you can continuously follow, and that is the same for all three of these questions. In other words, lasting positive habits must be possible in the actual, present-day life that you lead.

That doesn't imply that you should be modest in forming healthy habits. But it does include employing tactics that will enable you to choose which objectives to pursue—and how—in resilient ways.

Here are some pointers for creating enduring habits:

What is the ideal diet for staying healthy? What about the best exercise regimen? Or perhaps the self-care routine that will keep you content and calm?

The "best" positive behaviors are those that you can continuously follow, and that is the same for all three of these questions. In other words, lasting positive habits must be possible in the actual, present-day life that you lead.

That doesn't imply that you should be modest in forming healthy habits. But it does include employing tactics that will enable you to choose which objectives to pursue—and how—in resilient ways.

Here are some pointers for creating enduring habits:

1 Try before you purchase

That is before you adopt a new practice or regimen. A friend of mine recently discussed how beneficial "intermittent fasting," an eating pattern that incorporates fasting intervals into a daily meal routine, had been for her. Hearing her talk about increased energy and fewer mindless nibbling fascinated me.

But after a few days, during which I skipped breakfast and had long stretches without eating, I concluded that this wasn't a suitable fit for me. It's a good idea to seek advice from dependable friends, family members, or professionals, but ultimately you must decide which healthy behaviors will stick with you.

2 Allow It a Chance

The behaviors you are most driven to adopt can occasionally be more difficult to maintain than you anticipated. According to research, it can take a habit an average of 66 days—or 2 months—to become established enough to feel usual. Set realistic expectations and be ready to make initial additional time and energy commitments if a sustainable beneficial habit may have some "start-up expenses."

3. Implement changes one at a time

One variable is studied at a time in good, sound science. If the homeowners fitted new air filters into their HVAC system, increased the amount of time they spent with the windows open, and started a new daily vacuuming regimen all at once, a research study that assessed, for example, indoor air quality in a home would not be beneficial or conclusive. Who could say which of those improvements made a difference if their results improved? Similar to this, when you want to improve something in your life, concentrate on one healthy habit at a time so you can see which ones are raising your standard of living.

4. Give to Yourself

Some people find intrinsic reward in the gratification of helping themselves. But some of us need to be deliberate about the incentive for developing good behaviors. A modest piece of dark chocolate eaten after exercise may even increase the feel-good neurotransmitters produced by the exercise itself, according to one study. Another suggestion is to get a coffee maker with a timer so that when you awaken on time, you are rewarded with a freshly brewed pot of coffee. As your new, healthy habits establish themselves in your life, consider how you might support them.

Chapter 5

Why Success Depends on Habits

Lists of the "habits of extremely successful people" are frequently seen online. These lists frequently provide excellent ideas for new routines that you might wish to attempt and implement in your own life. Let's examine the three primary reasons why successful people rely on habits and which habits are most helpful for achieving success.

The Success Habits:

Lists of the "habits of extremely successful people" are frequently seen online. These lists frequently provide excellent ideas for new routines that you might wish to attempt and implement in your own life.

The fact that so many successful people use habits to manage aspects of their lives and provide themselves opportunities to succeed is more significant than the exact habits themselves.

Let's examine the three primary reasons why successful people rely on habits and which habits are most helpful for achieving success.

Habits Increase Creativity:

Barack Obama developed a rigid routine for all the "small things" to enable him to concentrate on the important things.

Habit serves this evolutionary function. To free up more of our higher brain level brain activity for critical tasks like creating stone tools, pyramids, and iPhones, we are unconsciously motivated to do and learn how to do many things.

Therefore, concentrate on developing habits that assist you to avoid the little decisions that we all make daily if you want to enable achievement. Adopt routines that ensure that choice is made beforehand. For instance:

When I first get to work, I'll work on a big project before checking email.

Trying to cultivate good eating habits is probably a good idea for almost everyone. According to research, the majority of people make 200 decisions each day on their food and eating. That is a lot of choices, which is one of the reasons diets are so difficult to maintain. As a result, following a tight food regimen can not only make you feel better but also increase your mental capacity.

But the commitment must be precise for every of these "choice eliminating" practices. The commitment shouldn't simply be to "work out three times a week," as you would still need to choose the best time, place, and method for each workout. A strict schedule should be followed, such as Monday morning swimming at 7 am, Wednesday night yoga at 6 pm, and so forth.

The same holds for obligations involving food. Never make the promise to "eat healthily," as this would require you to make a decision every time you had to make a food-related choice, which would continue to tax your decision-making abilities.

For example, "this week I will eat on Monday x for breakfast, y for lunch, and z for a snack, etc." is a good way to make food-related commitments. In a similar vein, you may swear, "I don't drink during the workday," or "I don't drink coffee after 4 pm." The agreements must be clear enough that the choice has already been made.

Prioritize Important Tasks:

Humans experience decision fatigue, therefore we need to keep the number of decisions we make each day to a minimum. We become worse decision-makers the more choices we make before a period of rest.

For instance, a recent study discovered that the time of day an offender appears before the parole board is quite important. A disproportionate number of people who appeared before the board during the morning session, just before lunch, and after the day was denied parole. Why? Due to decision-making weariness, the judges opt for the simplest, safest response, which is "no," rather than properly evaluating the case.

Of course, all of this is subconscious, and the judges have no idea what they are doing, just as we essentially have no idea when we grab for that late-night bottle of wine or bar of chocolate.

Therefore, successful people make care to prioritize the tasks that are most crucial and mentally taxing first. They also try to minimize the number of decisions they need to make each day. Because of this, you will frequently come across suggestions such, as "take on challenging work as soon as you arrive at the office." In other words, focus on creative things with your fresh mind rather than responding to emails.

When Beethoven was most creative, he believed in rising early and working until noon. The fact that Leonardo Da Vinci napped for 20 minutes every four hours, which would have helped him reenergize his brain's decision-making and creative synapses, is probably not a coincidence.

It Aids in Maintaining Motivation:

Successful people typically aim high and have lofty objectives. We are frequently advised to set goals that seem too audacious to accomplish since even getting halfway there is progress.

But while doing so encourages us to push our limits and grow, it may also be discouraging. It can be simple to give up when the effort seems too large or the final goal too far away.

For this reason, it is better counsel to have huge dreams, determine precisely what needs to be done to realize them, arrange those chores into a process or a set of habits, and then temporarily set those dreams aside.

By doing this, you shift your focus from an impossible goal to something doable that you must accomplish each day.

Do you want to open a book? Ensure that you write at least 1,000 words each day.

Want to expand your company? Commit to making five daily cold calls to potential new clients.

Want to increase your knowledge in a particular field? Make a daily commitment to spending 30 minutes reading current events and articles.

You may stay on track and motivated by focusing on these habits, which make you do the things you need to do rather than focusing on the things you can't.

Additionally, if you commit to "the process" for a set amount of time, say 30 days, you might discover that you get a lot closer to your objective than you anticipated, which will inspire you to take the necessary steps for the subsequent stage of the process.