8 Practical Tips To Give Up Bad Habits

Omolara Rafiu

1. Acknowledgement

The first thing to do when you wish to break a bad habit is to indeed acknowledge that you truly have one. This way you will be able to identify what your bad habits are and what you wish to change.

2. Identify What Triggers Your Bad Habits

There has to be a certain thing that triggers your bad habits. For example maybe stress makes you overeat, boredom makes you crave scrolling through social media and so on. 

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3. Change Your Reaction To The Triggers

Once you realise what your triggers are, the next thing to do is to change how you will normally react to it, for example when you are bored don't follow the same pattern of reaction. 

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4. Replace With Positive Habits

When you have bad habits triggers, instead of giving in to it, do something positive to replace it instead. For example, Instead of scrolling through social media when you are bored, opt for playing brain challenging games like puzzles, instead of overeating when stressed, try to reduce stress and so on.

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5. Take Each Step at a Time

Set realistic goals for yourself, trying to break bad habits drastically overnight or within a very short period of time will only make the process cumbersome and tiring which will most probably lead to a relapse.

6. Have An Accountability Partner

An accountability partner will help you a lot in your journey to giving up bad habits because he or she will hold you accountable by checking in regularly and ensuring that you don't go off track.

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7. Be Persistent

Bad Habits are formed through doing them persistently, therefore the only way possible to break them is through persistence. Be persistent in your journey of  breaking bad habits, don't do it today and stop tomorrow.

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8. Ensure You Reward Yourself

In order to give yourself room for encouragement, try to reward yourself from time to time during the process of breaking bad habits. When you reward yourself after good behavior your brain will begin to associate rewards with the good behavior, hence, making it easy to persist in such behavior.

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Now that we know various ways that bad habits can be stopped, it becomes important to make conscious efforts to practicalize these tips. Always remember that most bad habits only give momentary pleasure and a longtime negative effects.