Everyone has habits, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with them. Some are pretty useful — maybe you lay out your clothes for work the night before or automatically turn off the lights when you leave a room.
Here are 15 tips to help you break bad habits.
Remember, triggers are the first step in developing a habit. Identifying the triggers behind your habitual behaviours is the first step in moving past them.
Why do you want to break or change a certain habit? Research from 2012Trusted Source suggests it may be easier to change your behaviour when the change you want to make is valuable or beneficial to you.
If you and a friend or partner both want to break an unwanted habit, try to do it together.
Mindfulness can help you develop an awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. This practice involves simply observing impulses that relate to your habit without judging them or reacting to them.
You might have an easier time breaking a habit if you replace the unwanted behaviour with a new behaviour, instead of simply trying to stop the unwanted behaviour.
Using stickers, sticky notes, or other visual reminders wherever the habit behaviour happens can help you rethink the action when something triggers you.
Accepting you’ll probably slip up a few times when trying to break a habit and coming up with a plan is one thing. Preventing feelings of frustration and failure when you do slip up is another story.
Trying to kick multiple habits in the same go? The image of a new, improved self can be a powerful motivator, especially when you first decide to change unwanted habits.
Your surroundings can sometimes have a big impact on your habits.