Habits are powerful. They help us do the thousands of things we need to do every day, some simple, some complex, without thinking. They’re shortcuts for the brain, allowing you to save time and energy and move through your day efficiently. But habits aren’t inherently good — they can sometimes work against us. They can even be a serious detriment to our lives if not addressed. Small negative habits can compound over time into major problems. Maybe you’re at this point now. This guide will help you to finally break these bad habits. Whether you want to know how to break bad eating habits, how to spend less time on your phone, or how to stop nail biting, you’ll learn how to quit these habits for good, and it might be easier than you expect. Let’s begin with understanding how bad habits work.
Why Bad Habits Are Hard To Break
Habits are automatic. You do them without thinking. They’re triggered by cues in your environment, which means you often don’t even realize you’re doing them until it’s already happening. To go against this is to go against your default programming, which requires conscious awareness and effort. Plus, many bad habits are addictive, people feel a compulsion to do them. This is especially true with things like sugar, social media, or dopamine-driven behaviors. Not only is the behavior automatic, but you crave the action. To work against this is to work against a powerful force. But it’s completely possible, and surprisingly easy. Unfortunately, most people go about it the wrong way, and it’s why many people seem to overcome their bad habits temporarily, but succumb to them over time. Let’s discuss the key error most people make.
How Most People Try To Quit Bad Habits
Let me know if this sounds familiar: you want to eat less sugar, so you decide to restrict the amount of sugar you can eat. Maybe you give up soda, maybe you give up dessert, and you only treat yourself once and awhile. You’re successful at first—you’re eating less sugar, after all, but you can’t help feeling a gnawing sensation, a desire deep down to drink that coke, eat that ice cream. You may ignore this urge temporarily, but eventually, it will strike on a day you don’t have the strength to fight back. This is totally fine, we’re all human. But will this strategy work long-term? Is being in a constant battle with yourself, just to eat a little less sugar, really productive? It’s exhausting, and over time, most people give in completely rather than fight permanently. Thankfully, there’s a way, without battling with yourself, without fighting urges, that you can not only reduce the amount of sugar you eat, reduce your procrastination, reduce your negative self-talk, but eliminate the habits for good, and do it effortlessly. Here’s how.
An Unorthodox Way To Easily Break Bad Habits
We’ve addressed how cutting down on your bad habit can make you crave it more, and puts yourself in a constant state of stress, so what is the alternative? This is going to sound stupid, ineffective, and counter-intuitive, but if you read this with an open mind and give it an honest shot, you’ll be amazed at how effective it can be.
I’m going to suggest you break your bad habit cold-turkey. Now, before you shut off your phone or close your computer, let me make two things very clear:
- You can absolutely do this
- It’s easier than you think!
When you quit something cold-turkey, you’re breaking the cycle you’ve fallen into for years. You stop negotiating with yourself and leaving the door open for temptation. By keeping the habit around (cutting down), you are keeping it in your life, and letting your default programming kick in. Your body doesn’t know you want to cut down, it just knows your habits. When the habit is completely removed, your brain is forced to adapt and create a new normal.
5-Step Plan For Quitting Bad Habits
If you’re still here, and you’re willing to quit your habit cold-turkey, I know that you’re serious. You’re someone who cares about improving your life, and you see your bad habits as an obstacle to your goals.
Here’s a 5-step plan for quitting any habit cold-turkey:
- Commit – Write it down, say it to yourself, or say it to a loved one. Fully commit to this decision and don’t look back. Commitment removes indecision. When there is no backup plan, you’re far more likely to follow through.
- Rejoice – Don’t view quitting as a bad thing, be glad you’re stopping something that’s causing harm to your life. You’re not “giving up” anything, you’re freeing yourself from a destructive habit.
- Remove triggers – Get rid of the obvious things in your environment that you can control that make you think of or perform your bad habit. Your environment is an incredibly powerful force in shaping your behaviors, so use it to your advantage.
- Make it difficult – If you want to quit video games, sell your gaming console. If you want to quit social media, delete your social media accounts. Try to add as much friction as possible. The harder something is to access, the less likely you are to do it.
- Build good habits in their place – Removing a habit without filling the gap often leads to relapse. If you’re quitting caffeine and every morning you used to make a cup of coffee, get in the habit of making hot water with lemon. You can keep your ritual, just replace the bad for the good. Here’s our full guide on How to Build Good Habits.
This may all sound intimidating, but it’s the best way to quit bad habits. You may have multiple bad habits you’d like to purge, but I recommend starting one at a time. With each bad habit eliminated, you’ll gain greater confidence in your ability to do so. Before you know it, there won’t be any left, and you’ll be free to become the best version of yourself.