Brian Tracy

Habits are patterns of thought and behavior our mind and body has become accustomed to. And when we try to change that pattern, our internal mechanism reacts. Sometimes it gets angry, sometimes it gets depressed, and often times it gets stressed. It is important to find healthy outlets for these emotions. Some effective outlets are exercise, finding a hobby you enjoy, or simply changing your environment for the moment and going outside to the park or beach.

Here are 5 steps for changing habits:

1. Awareness: You must become aware of your habits. What is this habit exactly? How is this bad habit or group of bad habits affecting you? How is this habit affecting others?
2. Wanting to Change: You must convince yourself that the change in the habit is worth the effort involved.
3. Commitment: You must be determined to do whatever it takes for breaking bad habits so that you can better control your life. You make a decision that “no matter what” you will change the habit. You do the work required to stop.
4. Consistent Action: It is important to focus on changing just one habit at a time. Then, take consistent daily actions for breaking the bad habit that has been causing problems and take the actions to develop a new one.
5. Perseverance: There will be times when you question whether it is all worth it. You’ll say to yourself that breaking these bad habits is too difficult; that you are too “weak” to change. Your old self, often so comfortable living with the bad habits, is trying to hold on.

Bad habits take time to take root and so do good ones. Realize you are not going to change bad habits over night. Changing them takes time. And the more time you spend sticking to your plan, the easier it will get. So take it one day at a time, and remember, “slow and steady wins the race,” not racing through things haphazardly.