How To Kick A Bad Habit & Replace It With A Good One

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Altering your life means altering your habits! Right here’s tips on how to kick a foul behavior and exchange it with one!

Hey there! I’m Chantal. I’m a mother, private coach, diet coach, and the proprietor of this little nook of the web. It’s good to “meet” you!

All of us have that one behavior we want we may kick to the curb. Possibly it’s senseless scrolling, skipping exercises, or reaching for the snack stash a bit too usually (no judgment right here!). The excellent news is that it’s totally potential to interrupt these patterns. Even higher, you possibly can exchange them with habits that really serve you.

On this publish, we’re diving into tips on how to ditch the unhealthy stuff and construct higher routines that make you’re feeling sturdy, assured, and in management. (Browken down into doable, science-backed steps.) Let’s do that!

How To Kick A Dangerous Behavior & Exchange It With A Good One

Step 1: Get Clear On What the Behavior Really Is

Many individuals are setting normal targets, however they merely aren’t particular sufficient! Should you’re severe about studying tips on how to kick a foul behavior, begin by figuring out the behavior you need to change, and be ultra-specific.

For instance, as a substitute of claiming, “I want to stop mindless snacking,” strive, “I want to stop eating chips after dinner while watching TV.”

Right here’s one other: As a substitute of claiming, “I want to stop mindless scrolling after dinner,” strive, “I will stay off of my phone until 7 PM every weeknight.”

When you’ve nailed that down, determine the cue (what triggers it), the routine (what you do), and the reward (what you get out of it). That is straight out of the behavior loop idea made common by Charles Duhigg.

Instance:
Cue = Sitting on the sofa after dinner
Routine = Grabbing a bag of chips
Reward = Consolation or leisure

Understanding your behavior loop is essential to disrupting it!

Associated Studying: 15 Wholesome Consuming Habits to Begin Right this moment

Step 2: Select a Alternative Behavior That Meets the Similar Want

Now that you recognize what your behavior is providing you with, it’s time to discover a higher approach to get that very same reward.

If the chips have been providing you with consolation, what’s one other comforting routine you would do as a substitute? Possibly it’s a sizzling cup of tea, a heat bathe, or cozying up with a e book. The objective right here isn’t simply to take away the behavior, it’s to exchange it with one thing that fills the identical emotional want.

(So – go whiten your tooth, take a stroll, shave your legs, or set up your closet!)

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Step 3: Use Behavior Stacking to Construct the New Routine

Behavior stacking, a time period popularized by James Clear in Atomic Habits, is all about piggybacking your new behavior onto one thing you already do persistently. (This one is my private favourite technique for tips on how to kick a foul behavior!)

Use the method:
After [current healthy habit], I’ll [new healthy habit].

Instance:
After I clear up dinner, I’ll make a cup of natural tea and sit down with a e book.

The hot button is to make the brand new behavior as simple and apparent as potential. Lay out your e book and tea mug earlier than dinner if it helps. You’re setting your self up for achievement.

That is so easy, so don’t overthink it! Simply add a wholesome behavior to an present behavior you already do routinely, and fairly quickly, they’ll go along with ease!

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Step 4: Make the Dangerous Behavior More durable to Do

The better one thing is to do, the extra doubtless you’re to maintain doing it. That works each methods, so if you wish to break a foul behavior, make it inconvenient.

Put the chips within the storage. Log off of your social media apps. Don’t hold soda in the home. No matter it’s, create a bit little bit of friction between you and the behavior. (For me, it’s a browser blocker to maintain me from Amazon buying, lol!)

In the meantime, make your good behavior simpler. Maintain issues accessible, seen, and interesting.

Step 5: Monitor Your Wins and Have fun Progress

Your mind loves a win. Whenever you monitor your progress (assume behavior tracker, guidelines, or perhaps a word in your cellphone), it builds momentum and provides you a purpose to maintain going.

And don’t overlook to have a good time the small stuff. Skipped the chips one evening this week? That’s progress. Changed a late-night scroll with journaling? Enormous win.

Progress over perfection each time.

Step 6: Be Affected person, Not Excellent

Actual speak: habits don’t change in a single day. It takes time, consistency, and a bit self-compassion. You will mess up generally, and that’s okay. What issues most is that you just hold coming again to your objective and reinforcing that new routine.

Altering habits isn’t about willpower, so should you’re nonetheless pondering it’s, cease! It’s about creating programs that assist the particular person you need to change into.

Listed below are a bunch of free behavior trackers you should use to make it occur!

Closing Ideas on These Methods on How you can Kick a Dangerous Behavior

Kicking a foul behavior isn’t about being good or overhauling your life in a single day! It’s about making small, intentional modifications that add up over time. Whenever you perceive how habits truly work and also you pair that with reasonable methods (like behavior stacking), you’re far more prone to keep it up.

So don’t stress about slipping up right here and there. Concentrate on exhibiting up, making tiny shifts, and giving your self grace alongside the way in which. You’ve obtained this!

Should you strive any of the following tips, let me know the way it goes. I really like listening to about your wins (massive or small)!

Till subsequent time,

Chantal from Ironwild Fitness