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Chronic bad habits can hold you back professionally, affect your health and shorten your life. Your bad habit may not seem that bad, but they can affect your relationships with others and make you seem annoying.
The worst habits are those that affect your health, such as smoking and overeating. There are some easy things you can do to kick your bad habits to the curb, but there’s no really quick fix. You’ve got to commit to breaking the habits and continuing to form new and better habits to replace the bad ones.
Here are five tips that can help you leave those bad habits behind:
- Determine what you’re getting from the habit You’ve got to understand the bad habit before you can conquer it. For example, it may be obvious if you have a problem with overeating that you feel comfort when you indulge. How can you get comfort elsewhere? Good habits need to be formed to break the old ones, such as a hobby to replace a spending habit.
- How are you sabotaging yourself? So many bad habits can’t be broken because you sabotage yourself at every turn. If you want to be successful in business, you form friendships and contacts with those who have the same goals rather than isolating yourself. Figure out how you’re sabotaging yourself and make changes at that level.
- Change your routine Nothing sabotages the good intentions to change a habit like boredom. While you’re working to kick the bad habits to the curb, you can’t do business as usual. You’ve got to find ways to “entertain” and comfort yourself that are new and interesting.
- Small changes can break big habits Chipping away at the bad habit can make a difference, given enough time. Ask yourself how you can make small changes that will have a big impact on a bad habit you want to break.
- Set reasonable and do-able goals Bad habits can’t be replaced in a moment’s time. For example, if you need to get more exercise to improve your health, commit to small goals at first, such as getting up off the couch for 10 minutes per day and walking or stretching. When that becomes a habit, take it to the next level; maybe a twenty minute workout.
Many habits are so ingrained in your lifestyle that it’s going to take awhile before they’re completely gone from your life. Slow and easy is the operative phrase that will kick the old, bad habits to the curb and give you a new and more fulfilling lifestyle.
