Episode 34 : Part 4 - Bad habits - Fighting and overcoming them

Letters to my kids: A suicide survivor's lessons and advice for life

Episode 34 : Part 4 - Bad habits - Fighting and overcoming them

Music: “Just A Blip” by Andy G. Cohen From the Free Music Archive Released under a Creative Commons Attribution International License

https://www.developgoodhabits.com/break-bad-habit/ https://www.mindful.org/simple-way-break-bad-habit/ https://mayooshin.com/how-to-break-a-bad-habit/

How to break a bad habit.

- Use the words “I don’t” instead of “I can’t.” Surprisingly, the researchers found that the students who used the phrases“I can’t” chose to eat the chocolate candy bar 61% of the time. Conversely, the students who used the word “I don’t” only chose to eat this 36% of the time. Another similar study was also conducted on a different group of 30 participants split into three groups. This time the same experiment would test the impact on the phrases on their health goals. After 10 days of research, they found that only 1 out of 10 in the “I can’t” group were able stick to their goals. In contrast, 8 out of 10 in the “I don’t” group were successful in meeting their goals.

- I cant, i wont. Breaking bad habits. Next time you catch yourself saying “I can’t [bad habit],” reframe this word and say “I don’t [bad habit]” instead. This way you’ll give yourself a psychological edge to make a better choice.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." – Aristotle

- Use an “If-then” plan to replace the bad habit with a good one. Having a goal to break a bad habit is not enough.

If you want to permanently stick to a good habit, an intentional plan of action is required. One way to do this is to use an “if-then” plan of action. An “if-then” strategy requires you to be as specific as possible on where and when you will take a given action.

"If you don't learn how to control your thoughts, you will never learn how to control your behavior. Focus on the good habit you want to do, not the bad habit you don't want to do. Overcome the bad with good." - Joyce Meyer

- Here’s how to create your “if-then” plan.

Step 1: Identify the scenario that usually triggers your bad habit. For example, your friend offers you a pizza.

Step 2: Specify a different response to the trigger. Ideally, this should be a good habit that would replace and prevent you from falling into the temptation. For example, you ask for a piece of fruit instead of the pizza.

Step 3: Combine steps 1 and 2 into an “if-then” format i.e. “ If on Saturday evening my friend offers me a pizza, then I will answer: I prefer a piece of fruit instead.”

Using an “if-then” plan makes it easier to react to your cravings and replace them with a good one because of the prepared automatic response.

"The secret to permanently breaking any bad habit is to love something greater than the habit." - Bryant McGill

- Honestly, you’re probably not going to break your bad habits overnight. But, you could use these three strategies to give you that extra boost of self confidence and self control required to change. The process of finally breaking free from your bad habits is a little bit like learning how to ride a bicycle. There will be some days where you’ll climb on the bicycle and ride around easily. There will also be days where you struggle to get on the bike and keep falling over and over again.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." - Barack Obama