We all have habits of some sort and some of them are actually very good. When we are among people, we notice consciously and subconsciously other’s habits and adopt them sometimes and if don’t like’em, we either mention it to our friends/family/ourselves or try to avoid them.
So how do we develop habits?
In my previous articles I have talked about learning and adopting habits/behaviours through different sources including our carers, friends, television characters (hero/heroines/villains) etc.
Sometimes I have wondered in my head or even loud ‘why do I behave like this...?’, ‘I wish I could change this habit’ or ‘I hate myself (because of certain habit)’. I am sure you have asked yourselves these questions at some point in your life. I have been reminded on occasions that even though my certain habits has caused me pain but it is due to these habits and others, I am also liked and/or loved etc.
So, how do we change bad habits?
This is an interesting question because, though we are all individuals and our thinking + processing patterns are very different, we still have some similarities. To be able to change a habit, you need to be able to:
1- Be honest with yourself
2- Understand the habit
3- Why we do it
4- Accept the habit is bad
5- Find ways to change the habit
6- If failed, either try something different or don’t bother
If you have tried different ways to change a habit with less or no success, try out my theory ‘Always change a bit by bit to succeed in changing the whole’. Follow some simple rules to change:
- DO NOT make a decision of Quitting/giving up or Stopping (because that habit is part of you)
- Break your habit in to small pieces. In other words, step by step process
- Pick up the smallest process of your habit and change that first
- Once successful, your brain will know how to change the next process
- Due to the change of first process some of the others will sort themselves out
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Do not forget to celebrate those little changes that you make. Celebrate it by:
- Acknowledging your success
- Be proud of yourself for the success
- Praise yourself
Good luck and enjoy changing bad habits
Mohammed is a registered Advance clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner and Life coach who works with the philosophy of 'You can, you will'. He has been in holistic therapy for 2 years and loves his work.