Everybody has bad habits. Now granted, some people have less and some people’s bad habits are more grating than those of others, but we all have them. What is great is that we don’t have to! Imagine a life where you couldn’t change? What kind of life would that be? But we can, so let’s!

How do you break a bad habit?

You must want them to go: That’s right, some people want them to stick around. I have seen smokers continue smoking while watching their parents die of emphysema. They don’t want them to go. The first thing is to go deep into the recesses of your heart and ask, “Do I really want to give this up?” You do? Good!

A list: Write down all the reasons why you want to quit your bad habits. Make them positive. Make the list long! Start with the really powerful and dramatic if you need to. Now memorise. You are making connections between stopping the bad behaviour with what good things you will get from doing so.

Take action: One theory is that you must take massive action. You must go all or nothing. Using the weight loss example, this person would go spend Rs 1500 to join a gym, rework their schedule and hit the treadmill everyday for a year. They will get rid of all fat in the house.Others would burn out on that, feel like failures and be worse off than before. They should start out slow, taking baby steps, but working diligently.

Tell somebody: This is your accountability partner. Tell them your goal and tell them your plan. Write it down for them and have them ask you on regular intervals about your progress.

Recover from failure

Inevitably most people will have setbacks. The key is to have them be setbacks and not turnbacks. Pick yourself up and get going again. Some people may want to lose 10 kg and after losing five they eat a gallon of ice cream.

Reward yourself

You should regularly congratulate yourself by rewarding yourself with some gift to yourself. Start small with small victories and plan a big one. — Agencies