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3 steps to change bad habits easy
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Everyone has their own Bad habits that they wish to change such as, nails biting, interrupting others while speaking, not respecting appointments and of course the worst of them all; over-eating. Those norms are all bad habits that might seem hard to get rid of, but for successful people it’s always possible to get rid of any bad habit in their life. The process of kicking a bad habit from our lives demonstrates certain points that people should keep in mind.
In order to get rid of a bad habit, you should first be aware of it. For example, start by reading more about it and search in the internet to get more information about it. It is always a good idea to know the side effects of a habit you wish to overcome it. However, it’s not easy
Lash, S. J., Timko, C, Curran, G M., McKay, J R., Burden, J L.; (Jun, 2011). Psychology of Addictive Behaviors; Vol 25(2); 238-251. Doi: 10.1037/a0022608
Miller, Angela. Rewiring Your Self to Break Addictions and Habits Overcoming Problem Patterns. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010. Print.
Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, acknowledges how habits control our daily lives in every decision we make. For Instance, an ambitious woman named Lisa Allen, has not always had a fruitful life. Previously, she had abused her body with harmful toxins such as tobacco and alcohol since the beginning of her teenage years. Carrying out these habits everyday resulted her into being unmotivated and unconfident. In fact, she never kept a job longer than a year and began to fall into major debt. “She needed a goal in her life, she thought. Something to work toward” (xii-xiv). It begins with the “three-step loop” a cue that triggers our brain to do the habit. Next a routine, a set of actions that are either physical or mental. Finally a reward of satisfaction that determines whether or not this habit will be continuous (19). Not all habits can be good, but this is where the golden rule applies. Duhigg explains that in order for you to change your habit “ you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine”(62). “However, simply understanding how habits work- learning the structure of the habit loop makes them easier to control”( 20). Reading The Power of Habit, helped me understand the process by which I made a positive change to fight procrastination.
According to Leshner, drug addiction is a chronic brain disease that is expressed in the form of compulsive behaviors (Leshner, 2001). He believes that drug addiction is influence by both biological, and behavioral factors, and to solve this addiction problem we need to focus on these same factors. On the other hand, Neil Levy argues that addiction is not a brain disease rather it is a behavioral disorder embedded in social context (Levy, 2013). I believe, drug addiction is a recurring brain disease that can be healed when we alter and eliminate all the factors that are reinforcing drug addiction.
When picking a health habit that I would like to challenge myself, there were many that I want to choose but I want to choose something that I know that I can fully commit to it and know that I can do it. I want to start something small and then in the future if I want to challenge myself then I will gradually go for a health habit that is more challenging. The health habit that I decide to go with was eliminating my intake on soft drinks or drinks that have high sugar including drinks that contain high-fructose corn syrup. In addition, I want to drink more water because I notice that I do not drink enough water, therefore, I want to incorporate that into my life. I chose this health habit because I notice that my intake of sugar is high and I want to stop myself from doing it but I cannot be commit to it.
While trying to break the movie theater norm, it was difficult for me to pick movies with a different variety of people and movies that were a little older so less people would be attending them. I also had a little trouble when it came to answering the phone and waiting for the other person to talk first. The problem with this one was that I had to wait for people to actually call me, which doesn't happen that often in this day and age anymore. To conclude, these social norms forced people to be in uncomfortable situations and make a decision as to how they would react to it.
In order to develop a fixed negative reinforcement schedule, I divided my cigarettes into groups allowing myself only three cigarettes a day. I placed my daily ration of cigarettes into envelopes and labeled them for each day of the week. I smoked one cigarette after lunch, one after dinner, and one later at night. I would reward myself with a cigarette after attending classes and eating lunch. I would then reward myself with another cigarette after homework and dinner. Through the course of my week, I violated my regimen only twice. On Wednesday and Friday, I “bummed’ a cigarette from one of my friends. After feeling guilty about violating my regimen, I repented for hours, and swore to myself that I was going to beat my addiction. Primary negative reinforcers also helped me stick with the plan such as improved stamina during physical exercise and more money in my pocket.
When it comes to the topic of addiction, most of us will readily agree that it is a miserable trait to possess. An addiction is a physical and psychological state of being that if not treated correctly could result into harmful wrongdoing. In The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, he recounts a story in which a fatigued housewife named Angie Bachmann lost all of her family’s assets, amounting to a million dollars due to a gambling addiction. Every habit has three components: a cue or a trigger of an automatic behavior to start, a routine the behavior itself, and a reward which is how our brain learns to remember this pattern for the future. According to Duhigg, “you cannot extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it” (63). Duhigg suggests that in order to change ones bad habit the “Golden Rule” must be implied. The Golden Rule is a theory of shifting a habit by retaining the old cue and reward, and tries to change only the routine. Duhigg’s answer to the question in the chapter title, “Are we responsible for our habits?” is simply “Yes.” If we have an awareness of our habits, then we are responsible for their consequences. In the case of Angie Bachmann, she should be held accountable for her gambling debts because she was well aware of her own bad habit and did not try to seek for help.
During the abstinence exercises for my Addiction Recovery and Social Work Practice course, I learned how to mentally abstain from my desires. During the weeks of abstaining, I decided to abstain from sodas, sex, cigarettes, and social media in order to understand the equivalence of individuals who have an addiction for drugs or alcohol. While abstaining from my desires, I found healthier ways, and activities to keep me focus on the assignment; for example, during my social media exercise, I decided to stay away from all social networks and spend time with family, and going on dates to work on my communication skills. Overall, the learning experience for the abstinence exercise has taught me that I have more mental power than I expected and
Habits could lead our lives in two directions, A path that leads to success and well-being, or a path that leads to nowhere and laziness. Currently, I am on the path the leads to nowhere and laziness. However, modifying or eliminating a bad habit is not an easy task to accomplish. In the book The Power Of Habit by Charles Duhigg, explains with willpower and determination you can change a certain habit and achieve any long goal you wanted to achieve. A change in bad habits leads to a change in life"(Jenny Craig). Personally, my bad habit is coming home from college, proceed to laying down on my bed and go on my phone, which leads to losing precious time for completing my homework. I created an experiment where I tried to adjust my habit
In the article “Smoking”, people who consider smoking as a habit is also one of the reasons that lead to addiction with “serious health consequence” (Boughton 2090). Every addiction only starts with just one puff to another until it became one stick to one pack. Most of the people today, they said that they only smoke occasionally, saying that they use it for instant stress reliever and moderate using only. But, what they don’t know is that one day they will be craving it and slowly they will realize that they can’t stand a minute of not smoking a stick of a
Growing up in a family where mostly every guy has an habit of drinking I agree with Somerset Maugham when he states, “The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones.” Having a habit where you drink everyday before going to sleep is a bad habit. It is really hard to break it when you don’t want to stop drinking. What makes you want to stop is when it is affecting your health or making you turn into a person that you don’t want to be that starts doing stuff through the affect of alcohol that themselves don’t realize. To make people go away from you and having your people around you go away just because the bad habit of drinking. Alcohol is a very bad habit that is hard to stop this is why I believe bad habits are harder to break than good habits because bad habits you don’t really want to quit and good habits you try to make which are easier to break.
It 's a lot easier to create good habits than to get rid of the bad ones, so let 's start with that.
Many of the common modern diseases such as diabetes, (lung) cancer and cardiovascular disease are caused by habits like physical inactivity, smoking and unhealthy diets [1]. Most habits are automatic human behavioral processes that are triggered by environmental or situational stimuli. These behavioral processes become habits when they are constantly repeated in the same context and result in actions that one is not conscious about [2], which can be both advantageous and disadvantageous to the individual’s health. Up until now, most of the approaches trying to change unhealthy habits in the population have been done through clinics or public health campaigns and are often ineffectual, as the actions are unconscious. When using habits as a