Out With the Old, In With the New: Increase Efficiency by Replacing Habits

Bad habits. Ugh, we all have at least one.

But once they’re developed, is there a way to go back and re-train your mind out of a bad habit?

The thing about habits is that they affect all parts of our lives, not just our personal or home life. Habits–good and bad–impact how efficient, and ultimately, successful we are in many ways.

The key is to identify which practices are holding us back and take a look at how they impact our lives. But overcoming bad habits and replacing them with better, more rewarding ones can be a challenge.

The first step is being?aware?of a change that needs to happen to establish better, more effective habits. Awareness takes time and patience.

Once you’ve gained awareness, you can begin to?train your brain to notice ways you can improve. Not only will this help you develop healthy habits but it’s a great way to establish patterns of personal growth!

One thing you can do is substitute one habit (a bad habit) for another (a new healthy habit).?Out with the old, in with the new.

Here are five examples of replacing habits.

1. Replace binge-watching with extra sleep.?On average, we need around 7 hours of sleep for our bodies to function optimally.?Sleep is so important to weight loss/maintenance, brain function and simply being happy. Falling asleep watching TV is a detriment to engaging a healthy sleep cycle.
2. Forget fast food (at least most of the time) and eat home-cooked meals.?Unless you are doing research on what you are ordering from a fast food restaurant, it is very likely you can make a similar meal at home. You are not only saving money (have you ever added up your monthly take-out expenses?), you’re saving a lot of extra calories, too.
3. Replace toxic people with positive mentors.?This one is one of my favorites and a habit that I have adopted over the past three years. Being surrounded by positive and helpful people can significantly impact your outlook on many different things in your life.
4. Replace doom-scrolling with a half-hour of exercise.?You will be astonished at how much more energy you have after 30 minutes of exercise.?The endorphins that are released will make you feel pretty great. Not to mention, endless scrolling on social media provides little value or enrichment.
5. Replace overthinking with ACTION.?This is a biggie! When your brain goes into overdrive and spends time dwelling on what?could?happen or what?didn’t?happen, you’ll “go down a rabbit hole” … leading to a negative mindset. The truth is, the scenarios that your brain has created most likely will never happen. The fix: take action and take control of the situation. Be the one in charge of your thoughts and the?driver of the outcome.

Now is the time to decide to change some of your habits and set realistic goals for yourself. But do not fret… changing poor habits does not happen overnight. According to research reported in?this?Insider?article, it takes 18-254 days to break a bad habit.

So get going. BE PATIENT and believe in yourself.

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