Overcoming Bad Habits; The Steps [Part 2]
It is true that bad habits are not easy to let go of, especially the ones that have lasted a while, but it is still possible for one to overcome them. One thing to give you hope is that the bad habits are not congenital, that is you were not born with them. Which means that you picked them up at some points in your life, and if this is so, then you can still drop them by putting determination and efforts into it. In the last episode, we took a look at some things to get handy with that will help one to overcome their bad habits. Here, we shall be taking further points that one can employ in other to overcome bad habits.
1. Be careful of the company and friends you keep
You will be surprised to know that a lot of bad and unwholesome habits that people imbibe started from the actions that were encouraged by their friends. When my friend narrated to me how she started smoking, I quickly understood how friends can make someone to trail a particular path. During her first year in the college, she stayed in the same hostel with people that smoked and to make it even complicated, her roommate was also a smoker. In the evenings after school, they would gather in the room to get some smoke. After a while, my friend decided to join them to have a taste of it.
She started with "shisha", then she went on to try cigar and now she smokes all manner, and it has become a habit to her that she has been trying to stop. The same way friends can help someone to pick up a bad habit, friends can also help one to drop it. If you company with friends that do not support a particular habit that you have, they will serve as an encouragement to you to drop it. Obviously, you will not want to exhibit that habit in their presence, and so you will begin to drop the habit. The more you stay with them, the more they draw you away from doing that habit and over time, you will discover that your zest for the habit will dwindle.
2. Take the process bit by bit and add determination to it
It is true that it may not be possible to automatically stop a habit that has stayed with you for a while but the process can be initiated bit by bit. For example; if you normally smoke 2 packets of cigarette daily, you can resolve to start the process of stopping it by reducing it to 1 packet thrice a week. In that way, you are able to initiate your control over the habit. At first, it may not be too easy but with determination, you will be able to do it. When you see yourself as capable, then you will be able to pull through.
More often than not, bad habits thrive with attention, but by limiting the attention you give to it, you will discover how easily you can overcome it. If you find it hard to stop a bad habit, it will be better to start by reducing the frequency of the habit, then you can proceed to even reduce it the more and more. By doing that, the desire for the habit will continue to reduce and by the time you stop it, you may not even know. So do not see a bad habit as impossible to be stopped, rather see it as something you can stop.
3. Reward yourself for meeting a target
From the above points of taking the steps towards overcoming your bad habit in bits, once you have achieved your target, you need to celebrate that and reward yourself for it in order to keep you motivated to get on with the next target. One thing to also focus on when setting your target is in your ability to stop the habit, not in the difficulty of the habit. A friend of mine told me how he was able to overcome a particular habit. At first, he set a target of how long he can stay without the habit and amazingly, when he hit his target, he rewarded himself. To add to that, his family members that also wanted him to stop the habit also rewarded him when they saw that he was able to pull through, so it motivated him to increase his target and went on to hit it. All these steps helped him to stop the habit.
One of my friend's kids was sucking her finger and up till the age of 4, she was still sucking it and it became a habit for her. Her parents made her a deal of what they would give her if she did not suck her finger for a week; which they fulfilled. They then made another proposition of a bigger thing to give her if she can stay a month without sucking her finger and of course, she needed that thing so she pushed through for a month and the process continued until she stopped. This can also be applied in other bad habits.
Thanks for reading
