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Very seldom do any of us need to commit to a bad habit to keep it going. Those bad habits just seem to follow us no matter how much we want to stop. Good habits, however, take time and commitment to form and stick to.
One thing you can do to help commit to a good habit is to visualize it. Feature the happiness you’ll feel, how you will look and your emotions each time you
practice the good habit that you want to form.
A good way to reinforce your commitment to the good habit is to write down the benefits of it. For example, if you commit to building your business, write down the financial burdens that would be lifted if you realize success. Would it be a child’s education, or a trip you’ve been fantasizing about?
Also write down the sacrifices you’re going to have to make if you commit to the good habits. For example, if you’re committed to losing weight, you might not get to indulge in a big restaurant meal with your friends. Giving up alcohol may also cause some social repercussions with your friends.
Don’t quit if you experience a failure. When you’re truly committed, you don’t just give up at the first sign of trouble. Wars would never have been won and highly successful people would have never reached great heights if they quit after one or many failures.
Ridding yourself of a bad habit has to engage your mind totally and completely. You’ve got to realize why the bad habit keeps plaguing you. Is it an addictive habit such as smoking or alcohol? If so, you may need some professional intervention.
You also need to focus on your performance rather than the consistency of your efforts. For example, if you’re committed to cardio exercises three days a week but only feel like doing some Yoga stretches, you’ve at least kept up the exercise routine,“ making the bad habit of not exercising easier to break.
Unfortunately, nothing happens automatically like programming a computer to work a certain way. To get anywhere with forming good habits or losing bad ones, you’ll have to commit to going through the struggle to get there. You can commit to a good habit for 30 days and have a pretty good head start on making it a permanent habit.
And, if you’re giving up something you really enjoy by changing a bad habit, be sure to replace it with something that won’t interfere with the good habit forming, but that you’ll enjoy. Rewarding yourself is a good way to embed the habit and overwrite the bad ones.
Be sure that your habits are being formed or lost because you want it, and not what someone else thinks you should do. You can hardly look to others for convincing when you can’t even convince yourself.
