Five Ways to Destroy Your Bad Habit ( This can be a Game-Changer)

Your legacy to this world is nothing but your actions. How these actions emerge from you? Mostly they are pre-programmed. We are creatures of habit. Our habits govern us and in the direction of these habits, we do many things unconsciously. Thus, your actions and habits are lifetime partners with each other. Either you install good habits or destroy bad habits. Not many choices we have if we want to live a life of our own. Now how to install Good Habits? Before installing good habits, we must focus on bad ones. The harmfulness of bad habits is 10 times higher than the goodness of good habits. On the other hand, once these bad habits are removed from you, you will surely become good to great. Don’t you hear a very old and famous story about this? Let me tell you.

 

“Once upon one artisan was engrossed in preparing a marvelous statue. After some time, a passer-by observed him working so dedicatedly towards the craft. He also observed other beautiful statues carved by him. They were as good as alive. Out of curiosity, he asked the artisan, “How do you prepare such a wonderful piece of art from the stones?” The artisan smiled and replied, “The stones are themselves beautiful, I just remove the bad parts and beautiful images come out.” 

 

In his answer, lies the profound philosophy of life which if employed intelligently can be a game-changer.

 

We, humans, have tremendous potential, mind-blowing talents but they are always and almost dormant due to our own bad habits which reflected through our behaviours. Once the dark clouds of bad behaviours due to bad habits are removed from our mind sky, the beautiful rays of light spread across and create illuminating experiences.

 

Before adding good habits let’s eliminate the bad ones: Here are the sure-shot strategies for eradicating the bad habits therefore bad behaviours ultimately:

 

1] Identifying Triggers- It is important to observe and identify the triggers which entice us to go for bad actions. For example, a smartphone near our bed might temp us to observe some Facebook feeds, Twitter twits, Instagram snaps, WhatsApp chats, etc where a few seconds turns into a few minutes and sometimes a few hours. Total waste of time, don’t you think? Another example, an ashtray near the desk in the office or on the table in the drawing-room might trigger the smoking urge in smokers. One more instance: insulting behaviours from family members or staff members might trigger the desire to self-harm. Identify what triggers bad behaviours and remove them. i.e. Put the smart away from the bed, hide the ashtray from the sight of smokers, avoid coming in contact with those persons who love to insult you, etc.

 

2] Clear the Clutters- Those things which force us to do bad things need to be thrown out of sight. If you are a sweet lover (avoid bringing sweets at home); if you are a TV maniac, cut the subscription of cable or DTH services; if you are a social media crazy, delete the accounts of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp, etc. It seems like heavy advice; it may hurt also but gradually the benefits are so high that the temporary pain of withdrawal is worth taking.

 

3] Replace them with Good ones- Switching habits can be useful. If you are addicted to social media, better find the inspirational stuff on social media. If you are habituated to sleep a lot, replace it with the membership to yoga classes or exercise clubs. Gradually these habits also need to be replaced.

 

4] Ease IN/ Jump IN: Habits can be eased in means gradually change or decrease the habit. i.e. If you are surfing on the internet aimlessly, you limit it by setting a time limit and gradually decrease it. If you are habituated to have two-three ice-creams per visit to an ice-cream parlour, better decrease it to one scoop.

There is another way: A quite brutal way: Just leave it at once forever. That’s it. If you are addicted to TV watching, cancel the cable subscription and vow not to watch TV again.

5] Vice Check: Many times, certain habits are formed due to some misfortunate events occur frequently in your life. Suppose your vice is ice-cream; make sure that you are eating ice-cream to enjoy it not to recover bad events or bad moods. Suppose you are taking medicines, let’s painkillers, make sure that they are taken for pain, not for the relief from stressful life events.

I sincerely believe that these five strategies will work for you if you apply in your life. You can change your life, simply by changing your habits. After removing the bad habits, in the next post, I will discuss how to add good habits in the self. 

Regards

With Love,

Dr Bhavin Chauhan