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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
to find reliable resources in the internet especially with bad habits because when people talks about it, it might hurt others. The best way to figure out if you have that bad habit is by tracking yourself when and where do you encounter that bad habit, and whether you encounter it alone or there was someone that triggers you to do it. The next step is setting a goal by writing it down. Psychologists often say that writing your own goals will help and motivate you to achieve it later on. Sticking notes in various places where you can always see it such as telephone wallpaper, laptop, and refrigerator; these places are often seen most of the time. Our brains behave differently depending on what it encounters through it’s existences. If the brain encounters positive notes wherever the person goes; even if it wasn’t intentional, the brain will automatically react positively. Not only that, but self-rewarding is one of the most factors that increase our encouragement toward dumping a bad habit. Rewards should be divided into two parts the big reward which is the one that a person will get when they achieve their goal. While the other reward is the one that will be received after achieving partial parts of the goal. For example, if a person wanted to loss weight but he or she doesn’t have any way of encouragement. Partial self-rewarding is a great way to encourage the person to keep going. For instance, after finishing one quarter of the set date having one cheat meal doesn’t really effect the result, in fact it makes the person work harder and extend the set date just to have extra cheat meals. People all around us will try their best to makes us feel lower than them because they either don’t have the self-esteem we have or they envy us. If a person wants to change a bad habit, he or she should also change the environment around them because they might negatively effect their self-confidence. Instead, the person should stick to the people that cheers him or her up and encourage him or her to face bad habits. Surround yourself with those who have better habits than to surround it with the ones who practice the habits that you are trying to get rid off. Adding to that, most people want to get the results so fast, so they go toward wrong decisions. For example, over weight people should change their eating habits and change their junk food to healthy food such as fruits, vegetables and grill on fat-free oil. They don’t do that! What they are looking for is a fast way to get a fit body, so overweight people go to doctors and ask for sleeve gastrectomy, a surgery to help with weight loss, as a result skin will be excess and hard to get rid of. In conclusion, I believe that practicing anything for twenty-one days will either develop a new habit or replaces an old one. Moreover, people all around you will impact your result so keep yourself with people who don’t have the same bad habit you’ve already lost. if you achieved your goals reward yourself because it’s the best way to encourage yourself and don’t give up on yourself.
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.
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.
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.
To try and combat and modify this behaviour I attempted both positive reinforcement and positive punishment. For instance I allowed myself 1 hour extra on the computer if I went the whole day without biting my nails additionally after attempting the positive reinforcement above I attempted positive punishment which consisted of me doing 50 push ups each time I repeated the operant response.
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
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.
Miller, Angela. Rewiring Your Self to Break Addictions and Habits Overcoming Problem Patterns. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010. Print.
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.
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
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.
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.
The first bad habit we will talk about is drinking. Drinking is not a bad habit when done responsibly. Anyone should be able to consume alcohol when they want, as long as they have a sane mental state and recollection of what they are doing. Drinking becomes a problem when people consume too much alcohol and they cannot make good, rational decisions. When this happens the alcohol content in your blood flow to your brain and affects your decision-making and reaction time. This makes perfectly normal human beings think that they can do superhuman things. Most people end up injur...
A habit can be many things, some good, some not so good. Everyone has habits that they would like to change and maybe improve upon. I believe the majority of habits I have are good ones but some are not. These bad habits are the ones I will talk about.