How to Break Bad Habits

Today we begin an eight-week prequel culminating in the release of Think Remarkable, our new book, on March 6th. Every Wednesday morning we’ll publish an article explaining one critical skill that’s necessary to transform yourself and make a difference.

The book covers each topic in much greater depth and detail, but we’d like you to benefit from our work even if you don’t buy the book. It’s the start of a new year when we’re full of resolve, so we’re first going to explain how to break bad habits.

This issue is inspired by the information in Think Remarkable from Katy Milkman, economist at Wharton, remarkable expert in behavioral psychology, and author of How to Change. Here’s a synopsis of how to break bad habits.

Identify Your Barriers

·????? Conduct a self-assessment to pinpoint the specific bad habits you want to change. Start small and slow. Breaking bad habits is a process, not an event.

·????? Acknowledge psychological factors, such as present bias (“If it’s there, I’ll eat it”) that contribute to bad habits, and then remove those factors, so temptation is reduced.

·????? Inform the people around you of your goals. Tell them that they can either be part of the problem or part of the solution. An added benefit of this is that you’ll find out who truly cares for your well-being.

Use Commitment Devices

·????? Set up a penalty for not following through with your goals such as depriving yourself of something you want to do or forcing yourself to do something you might abhor. For example, making a donation to the political party that you despise if you don’t lose weight.

·????? Create a contract with yourself or use apps and services designed to hold you accountable to your commitments. Suffice it to say, you’re not alone in the desire to break bad habits so companies have created products to help you.

·????? Make a public declaration of your good intentions, so that you may experience embarrassment if you don’t follow through. For example, failure requires not only donating to a political party you abhor but having to tell the world you did so.

Create Associations

·????? Pair replacing a bad habit, like snacking on junk food, with something positive. For example, playing your favorite video game for a few minutes when you eat something healthy.

·????? Pair doing a bad habit with something negative. Maybe you could drop to the ground and do twenty pushups every time you eat french fries and drink a Coke. Obviously, this assumes you don’t like to do pushups.

·????? Replace your bad habit with something that is good and fun. For example, to break the bad habit of not exercising, choose an activity that you genuinely enjoy such as dancing, hiking, or surfing.

Think Remarkable presents accounts of individuals who have effectively abandoned negative behaviors through the use of these ideas. To illustrate, a writer grappling with procrastination initiated the writing process by dedicating a single sentence to the first cup of coffee each morning. This tiny practice developed into a fruitful daily writing regimen as time passed.

By incorporating these newly formed behaviors into pre-existing schedules, acknowledging the influence of good emotions, and actively seeking responsibility and support, you can deconstruct previous patterns and establish a path towards a more rational and gratifying existence.

This article is based on Think Remarkable: 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference. What you just read is approximately 400 words. Think Remarkable has 40,000 words.

Imagine how remarkable you will be when you read the entire book! Our book’s motto is, “Murder your mediocrity.”

One more data point: the foreword is by Jane Goodall, and the blurbs are by Bob Cialdini, Carol Dweck, and Julia Cameron.

Look for a newsletter every Wednesday that gives snippets of my new book!?

Pre Order it here:

https://amzn.to/3uAoRTc

Mahalo,

Guy