Have you ever want to break your old habit?

We are all aware that almost everyone has habits, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with them. I can guaranty that some habits 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.

But other habits, such as biting your nails or drinking coffee too late in the day, or overly snoozing your alarm, and the one I struggled with the most was waking up early and becoming an early bird, might not be so beneficial.

Breaking unwanted habits can be difficult, especially if you’ve been engaging in them as a lifestyle. But understanding how habits form in the first place can ease the process.

The manufacture of a habit

I have read a few books on theories around how habits develop. For instance, the idea of the 3 Rs is one of the main ones that I follow:

• Reminder: This is a trigger, or cue, that could be a conscious behavior, such as flushing the toilet, or a feeling, such as nervousness.
• Routine: This is the behavior associated with the trigger. Flushing the toilet cues you to wash your hands while feeling nervous triggers biting your nails. Doing something over and over can make the behavior routine.
• Reward: The reward associated with behavior also helps make a habit stick. If you do something that causes enjoyment or relieves distress, the pleasurable release of dopamine in your brain can make you want to do it again.

As we went through the 3 Rs and maintained that idea, I have written 2 tips that have helped me break my old, stubborn habit and can help you.

Comprehending your triggers

One thing to always keep in mind, triggers are the first step in developing a habit. Figure out the triggers behind your habitual behaviors is the first step in moving past them.

Spend some days writing down some of your habits to see whether it follows any patterns.

Note things like:

• Where does the habitual behavior happen?
• What time of day?
• Does it lead to unnecessary things?
• Are you not satisfied?
• Does it happen right after something else?

Let’s say you want to stop watching Netflix past midnight. After a few days of tracking your behavior, you realize you tend to start watching TV right after dinner. But you go to bed earlier if you read or take a walk or manage when you stop using your phone.

You decide to stop watching TV and turn off your phone by 7:30 p.m. on weeknights. Removing the trigger, watching TV makes it harder to carry out the routine of staying up too late.

Focus on WHY you want to change

This is one of my favorites so why do you want to break or change a certain habit??

?suggests it may be easier to change your behavior when the change you want to make is valuable or beneficial to you.

Take some time to consider the reason why you want to break the habit and any benefits you see resulting from the change. writ them down and these reasons may help you think of a few that hadn’t occurred to you yet.

For added motivation, write your reasons down on a piece of paper and keep it on your fridge, bathroom mirror, or another place where you’ll see it regularly. Make it your accountability paper.

Seeing the list can keep the change you’re trying to make fresh in your mind it will have to be engraved in your mind. If you do happen to fall back into the habit, your list reminds you why you want to keep trying, don't feel bad if you failed just bounce back and try again we determine whether we fail and stay there or fail and get up always choose to get up.