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5 Science-Approved Ways to Break a Bad Habit
Sink Your Stress Levels
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 behavior
Reducing your stress level makes you need less reward to offset it.
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Key Ideas
Set Better Goals
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.
Have a Better Reason For Quitting
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.
Replace a Bad Habit With a Good One
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.
Know Your Cues
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.
Sink Your Stress Levels
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 behavior
Reducing your stress level makes you need less reward to offset it.
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What causes bad habits
Most of the time, bad habits are simply a way of dealing with stress and boredom.
Everything from biting your nails to overspending on a shopping spree to drinking every weekend to ...
"Benefits" of bad habits
All of the habits that you have right now — good or bad — are in your life because they provide a benefit to you, even if they are bad for you in other ways.
And because bad habits provide some type of benefit in your life, it's very difficult to simply eliminate them. Instead, you need to replace a bad habit with a new habit that provides a similar benefit.
How to break a bad habit
- Choose a substitute for your bad habit.
- Cut out as many triggers as possible.
- Surround yourself with people who live the way you want to live.
- Visualize yourself succeeding and avoid negative self-talk.
- Plan for failure and find things that can help you bounce back when you make a mistake.
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Key Ideas
Willpower is Limited
Though companies like Nike try to ignite our willpower with their slogans, ultimately willpower cannot squash our subconscious and unconscious behavior.
Repetition of action and thought can m...
Knowledge is not Enough
If you know that you will eat junk food because your refrigerator is filled with it, remove all the junk food.
Friction
Just as removing friction aids in doing the activity more often, adding friction can aid to remove the bad habit, by making it difficult or cumbersome to do so.
Example: Cigarette smoking declined due to adding taxes, banning in public places and removing from vending machines.
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Key Ideas
About uncertainty
Most of us are quite addicted to a degree of certainty of all kinds, as this is what makes us feel safe. And now we all know nothing compares to feelings such as safety and control.
When f...
Stepping in the unknown
While it can be quite scary, stepping out in the unknown is necessary every now and then.
In order to push your limits, you should consider taking up new challenges that will not only make you experience fear, but most probably also later success into dealing with new and stressful situations. Furthermore, your brain will get trained to form new connections, which can only prove beneficial in the long run.
Train your mind to defeat uncertainty
Recent research has shown that uncertainty scares people even more than knowing that things are going to actually end up badly.
Therefore, in order to be mentally prepared to beat uncertainty, what better way than just imagining the worst case scenario? If it turns out badly, you will at least not be taken by surprise and, if it turns out well, you will be happy.
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