Habits have three main parts: a cue, a routine and a reward. Cues are the context where you tend to engage in the behavior and knowing your triggers can help you avoid them.Capitalizing on major life changes can also help break an unhealthy habit. Shifts in lifestyle can actually be the ideal opportunity for eliminating a vice as you don’t have those same cues.

Know Your Cues

The more you suppress your thoughts, the more likely you are to think about that thought or even revert back to that bad habit. Instead of trying to stop doing something,  it’s easier to do something else.

Replace a Bad Habit With a Good One

Even if you replace a “bad” habit with a better one, sometimes the original vice will have a stronger biological “reward” than its substitute. This is where the importance of having an intrinsic motivation comes into play.If that is the case, find as many benefits to the change as you can and try to use them as extra motivation.

Have a Better Reason For Quitting

Many habits involve the brain’s dopamine (or reward) system. The first time you engage in a new, “rewarding” behavior, you get a euphoric feeling from doing it as a result of a dopamine and that increases the likelihood of you repeating the behaviorReducing your stress level makes you need less reward to offset it.

Sink Your Stress Levels

Be specific on how you’ll implement goals into your daily life. Examining how you’ve responded to the situation in the past and determining what you can do to avoid reverting to the old habit, might be all it takes to break the habit.It’s easier to react based on something you’ve already planned out in the past versus trying to come up with a new plan on the fly.

Set Better Goals

Breaking a bad habit is tough-whether it's having a sweet tooth or a cigarette addiction. These strategies will set you on the right path.

Set Better Goals

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