This post is all about how to change your bad habits quickly and easily if you’ve tried and failed before!
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If you’re tired of having to snooze your alarm at least 5 times before you wake up, or if you want to stop stress eating for real, you’re in the right place! Here are 10 ridiculously simple tips on how to change your bad habits.
According to a study, almost 90% of what you do is on autopilot. So, your habits shape everything you do, and hence, the results you create.
That’s why you should to be more intentional with your habits. And learn how to change your bad habits and create good ones!
Many people believe that all you have to do to break a bad habit is decide, and then you’re done! However, more often than not, people end up in the trial and error phase rather than actually succeeding.
So, if you’ve tried everything and nothing worked, here are 10 hacks that will save your life and solve your ‘how to change your bad habits’ problem.
10 Tips On How To Change Your Bad Habits
1. Assess what habits you want to change
Look at different areas of your life – health, career, spirituality etc, and see what areas you want to change the most. Write down all the habits that you want to stop or do less of.
You can use this ‘Reinventing Life’ Workbook that’ll help you assess 6 major areas of your life. Having clarity is very important before you start taking the action.
2. What’s Your Why?
Changing a bad habits is hard as it is! One thing that can help you stick to it on tough days is having a strong ‘why?’
Ask yourself, ‘What’s this bad habit costing me?’ and ‘How will my life look different if I change the habit?’
Our human brain is often more motivated to go away from pain instead of going towards pleasure.
3. Identifying triggers
Every bad habit that you have is a response to some sort of trigger. For eg, you’re feeling stressed, so you start biting your nails.
You’re feeling bored, your hand instantly goes to unlock your phone.
Your alarm clock goes off, you straightaway hit snooze.
Take a day or two to identify these triggers, ‘What situations, actions, or feelings lead you to start indulging in your bad habits?’
4. Bust those triggers
Now that you’ve identified those triggers, it’s time to get rid of them. How can you avoid the situations or feelings that cause you to develop that bad habit?
Also, you can’t always avoid the trigger situations, like you’re bound to feel stressed sometimes (and that’s okay). Figure out how can you avoid engaging in the bad habit in those situations.
For eg, if you bite nails when you’re stressed. Maybe something as simple as applying nail paint can help.
5. Replace
You can’t just quit a bad habit and let it be. It’s important to fill that void; replace it with a good one. Or just give yourself an easier alternative.
You don’t eliminate a bad habit; you replace it.
– James Clear
For eg : Every time you feel stressed, do a 10 minute meditation, instead of biting your nails.
If you want to stop eating unhealthy foods, simply throw them out and replace them with carrot sticks or fruits. You’re less likely to go out of your way to consume junk food now.
Make a list of all the good habits to start and see how you can replace your bad ones with them.
6. Push Yourself
It’s said that it takes at least 21 days to build a habit; for it to become your natural response. However, when you begin to change your bad habits, the first few weeks will be difficult.
There will always be times when you’d feel that biting your nails is easier than getting up to start a meditation practice. But you need to keep pushing yourself.
The best way to do this is to start a challenge! Here’s a free 7 day challenge that you can take with your friends to start building the momentum for your transformation.
7. Accountability
Having someone to hold you accountable can motivate you to push yourself even on the toughest days. Because a lot of times, it’s easier to fall short on your commitments when no one else is watching.
But if you know that someone else (a friend or a mentor) is holding you accountable, you don’t want to disappoint them.
Ask your friend – one that’ll call you out on your bullsh*t. Or hire a mentor – they’ll really be invested in actually getting you a transformation.
8. Start small
You can’t expect to start waking up earlier or stop stress eating in a single day. It’s a process. Maybe start with waking up 30 mins earlier in the first week. And then go on from there.
Also, you don’t have to start changing 10 habits at once. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start small and stay consistent with it.
Once you start seeing results, it’ll motivate you to continue changing other habits.
9. Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself
You’re going to have good days and bad days! And that’s life. Stop telling yourself that ‘you’re not capable of change’ or ‘it’s never gonna happen’ every time you skip a day.
Your habits are bound to be inconsistent. That’s just a part of the process. But what’s more important is that you know you can return the next day.
2 Day Rule
Never skip a daily habit for 2 days in a row. If you skipped a habit today, don’t make it mean that it’s over, get back at it tomorrow.
10. Talk back
Once you start making changes, your brain will throw ALL sorts of limiting thoughts to hold you back. From “you really think this is going to work?” to “Your roommate would hate that you’ve started waking up at 6 am now”
And sometimes it’s best to talk back to your brain and answer these questions. The ‘what ifs’ and the ‘you’re not doing good enoughs’.
Resources On How To Change Your Bad Habits
Here are some other resources that can really help you on ‘how to change your bad habits?’ They’ll just make your journey easier!
1. Atomic habits
This book is the holy bible for everyone wanting to build new habits and break old ones. And it’s very actionable.
2. Badass Habits
Jen Sincero never fails to convey the message. This book is all about how to change your bad habits and stay consistent with the good ones.
3. “The Mindset Mentor Podcast” by Rob Dial
I listened to this podcast religiously for the 6 months straight. Many of his episodes are about how developing better habits can improve your life.
4. Habit Tracker
Another method for holding yourself accountable is habit tracking. When you see a visual representation of how well you’re doing with your habits, it motivates you to fill up that tracker.
Where to go from here?
You have all these amazing tips, but I don’t want you to leave without the action steps that you can take right now.
1. Start the 7 Day challenge
Challenges help you to push yourself, hold you accountable, and hence get faster results. If you’re confused how to change your bad habits, this is where to start!
Take this free 7 day transformation challenge; in fact, ask your friends to join in with you!
2. Dealing With Inconsistency
You’re bound to have days where you fall short. Most people start changing a bad habit and then quit after 3 days because of all the mental and physical problems they encounter.
If you don’t want to be one of them, watch this workshop on ‘How To Create Routines That You Won’t Just Quit In 3 Days’.
I’m sharing some amazing insights to help you deal with the problems that make you quit the habit building process before getting any results!
This post is all about how to change your bad habits quickly and easily if you’ve tried and failed before!
