How to stop with bad habits?

[Unlimited]

To be honest I don't know if there is already a thread or video about this topic.
If so please send me the link to it.

I started with my Commonplace book a few days ago and today I'm writing down my good and bad habits.

This brought me to think about how to best stop with bad habits and I wanted to ask you if you have some good strategies that you want to share.

Some things I think of are:

• Replacing bad habits with new habits, e.g. if you want to stop playing games you could replace it with going to the gym
• Just stop with one bad habit at a time
• Depending on your personality reduce it slowly or stop with it immidiatly
• Write down the benefits of it
• Be aware of why you want to stop with that habit

Edited March 20, 2023 by Unlimited

[Osaid]

For me, something that always works is becoming really conscious of the side effects of what will happen if you don't fix the habit. Reality will always outweigh your ego's BS excuses, so get really in tune with what will happen and become of you if you continue doing what you do. Really research it and start contemplating it.

I used to bite my nails as a kid, then I looked up pictures of the hands of chronic nail-biters and I immediately stopped it on that day. Stuff like that works really well on me.

You have to be really accurate and holistic with how you think about it as well. For example, if you eat junk food everyday, you can't think of it as "eating this piece of cake isn't gonna kill me". No, you're not just eating a piece of cake. You're perpetuating a habit which will constantly be replicated everyday. In a year you're going to have eaten 365 pieces of cake. How does THAT affect you?

Edited March 20, 2023 by Osaid

[Unlimited]

19 minutes ago, Osaid said:

You have to be really accurate and holistic with how you think about it as well. For example, if you eat junk food everyday, you can't think of it as "Eating this piece of cake isn't gonna kill me". No, you're not just eating a piece of cake. You're perpetuating a habit which will constantly be replicated everyday. In a year you're going to have eaten 365 pieces of cake. How does THAT affect you?

This is a really good point.

One of my bad habits in the moment is the following.
Since I work all day long on my MacBook for my business it happens often that when things are loading I take my phone to open Instagram and watch something on it. 
Sometimes I use it even longer that the program or website took to open.

I already tried to hide the Instagram App somewhere on my phone but this didn't work since my brain figured out fast how to find it.

Another thing I'm trying is to open this forum instead of Instagram but I'm not sure if this solution is much better.

The best thing would be to just be patient enough to just wait until it is open.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Unlimited

[Yimpa]

Life will teach you.

For example, I recently got into a car accident. After that happened, I changed my driving habits drastically. 

[HMD]

contemplate death and time, daily. 

2 hours ago, Unlimited said:

how to best stop with bad habits

 

[universe]

One big factor is identification.

"I am someone who doesn't drink alcohol"

"I am someone who eats healthy"

When you start to really ARE these things an BE this way, its over.

 

Another thing is having goals and working on them. You simply don't have time for bad habits if you are working on building the life that you want.

 

And a prerequisite for all of this is to take 100% responsibility. You are the one responsible for your life and your habits. You have a choice!

[Raze]

https://www.shinzen.org/positive-behavior-change/

[hyruga]

You can read 'breaking the habit of being yourself' by Dr Joe

[Treat]

On 2023-03-20 at 10:21 AM, universe said:

One big factor is identification.

"I am someone who doesn't drink alcohol"

"I am someone who eats healthy"

When you start to really ARE these things an BE this way, its over.

 

Another thing is having goals and working on them. You simply don't have time for bad habits if you are working on building the life that you want.

 

And a prerequisite for all of this is to take 100% responsibility. You are the one responsible for your life and your habits. You have a choice!

Definitely agree with this answer! Striving for an identity rather than a goal has been really effective for me

It becomes a lifestyle rather than a temporary change

[Treat]

On 2023-03-19 at 10:00 PM, Unlimited said:

This is a really good point.

One of my bad habits in the moment is the following.
Since I work all day long on my MacBook for my business it happens often that when things are loading I take my phone to open Instagram and watch something on it. 
Sometimes I use it even longer that the program or website took to open.

I already tried to hide the Instagram App somewhere on my phone but this didn't work since my brain figured out fast how to find it.

Another thing I'm trying is to open this forum instead of Instagram but I'm not sure if this solution is much better.

The best thing would be to just be patient enough to just wait until it is open.

This urge is one of the most annoying that i've dealt with 

I combat bad habits like this by making it hard to do them. I add friction to it.

For example deleting instagram and making it so you can only access it by opening safari and logging in everytime is enough work where you can't just pop it open when you have a couple seconds to kill. It's annoying enough where you'll say forget it. And also the user experience on web is much more annoying than on the app

Its similar to the advice that if you want to stop eating junk food just dont bring it in the house!