Getting rid of a bad habit

Got any bad habits?

If we’re honest, we can probably list several several behaviors that we ought to eliminate. In this case, I’m talking about ongoing habits that are bad for our health.

I could create a long list of my own bad habits, but I’ll just mention one as an example.

For many years (since I was a teenager) I’ve had the terrible habit of biting my finger nails. Last year I developed an infection in one finger. It was disgusting!

 

Well, I didn’t want that grossness to spread, so I quit that bad habit. Not only did I not bite THAT fingernail, I stopped biting all of them.

I had an incentive to quit!

 

So, without getting too personal, do you have some bad habits you need to break? Some behaviors you need to change to have better health? Examples might be smoking, eating too much sugar or junk food, drinking sodas, staying up too late, too much computer or phone time, not exercising, etc. Can you add more?

So, how can we break a bad habit?

There are several strategies I recommend:

Identify the habit(s) you would like to change. You may have several on your list, but I suggest starting with one at a time. Write these in a safe place and list the date. Keeping a journal about your progress can be helpful, too.

Incentive--Find a reason for making a change. List the advantages to stopping the behavior(s). For example, stopping biting my nails had numerous advantages for me–my fingernails look much better, I don’t have nasty, germy fingers in my mouth, and I was able to stop a terrible habit that held me captive for years. What are the reasons you should stop or change a particular behavior?

Improvements in your health–How will your health benefit if you are able to stop a bad habit or add a healthy one?

Involvement–You will need to commit to making changes, but you also need involvement from family and friends. Recruit a support group to encourage you in your goals. Perhaps they also want to make healthy changes or break a bad habit and you can support each other.

Initiate an alternate behavior. When training animals, a proven method for changing a negative behavior is to train a new behavior to take the place of the bad. This works for humans, too!

You may have some other helpful strategies that have worked for you in breaking a bad habit or starting a new and healthy behavior. Please feel to share in the comment section below so others can benefit from your advice.

I also encourage you to pray about making healthier choices. Please send me a message on the contact tab if you’d like me to pray for you.

Wishing you blessings and joy on the journey, my friends!