𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗲: 𝗔 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻

21|Cut it out!

You know...that thing we keep doing almost everyday even though we tell ourselves we'll stop or try to improve.

It could be spending too much time on social media, spending waaaay too much money on things we don't need but want, mindless use of the internet, procrastination, eating too much junk food and so much more.

A habit is a repetitive way of behaving meaning it's like a lifestyle since it's done continuously like taking a shower and brushing your teeth everyday for example.
A bad habit is also repetitive but most likely would not be beneficial to you.

The Bad Habit Chain
#1 Trigger: Before you begin any bad habit you need to have a trigger which are usually, stress and boredom.

#2 Craving: After the trigger you begin to have a craving or a desire to do it.

#3 Satisfaction: You have a desire because you know that you'll derive satisfaction from it. This is like passion in a funny but true way coz this is what makes you continue the habit.

#4 Reward: After you're satisfied you get some kind of reward which is most likely not at all beneficial if you want to be true to yourself.

Bad habits take a while to break. It's easy to start but the hardest thing is breaking it since it's a routine with comes with satisfaction.

When trying to break a habit, stage 3 of the chain is what stops you or makes it more difficult for you to break. You ask yourself, "why on earth should I run away from this satisfaction?" even though you know it's not healthy or good for you.

The best way to prevent a trigger is to avoid it. If you know you spend more when you have money in your wallet, consider keeping your money in a bank or a safe. This helps you spend more of the money left better since your new worry would be figuring out how the money would be used for all your needs and even wants.

Since breaking habits isn't easy, you can do either of the two types of things to break them:
Reduction or Replacement.

You can break a bad habit slowly using:

#1 Reduction
Instead of watching 5 hours of TV try breaking it down to less hours like 4 hours with 1.5 hours of productive work in between. This gives an even greater satisfaction since you also achieve something.

#2 Replacement
Replace a bad habit with another one. Like I mentioned earlier, bad habits are caused by stress and boredom. If you tend to eat more when you're stressed try something else beneficial to you. Discovering what you like takes a lot of patience but you'll find something  if you try hard.

An extra way to break habits which I use and works for me is Guilt. I basically make myself feel guilty using methods. So you might say I'm being a little crazy or unfair to myself but you have to understand that bad habits in the first place are very unfair to oneself. I believe using the guilt treatment is very effective to humans since we all have a conscience.

Sometimes I spend too much time on YouTube or social media or some certain apps so what I do is set reminders that appear every 5 minutes to remind me to get back to work. Let's say I have to write an essay and I'm busy on Wishbone for instance. The reminder pops up on my screen saying homework!!!! The first 3 times I might ignore it but after a while I start to feel guilty because I'm constantly reminded that I have work to do.

You can get creative with your guilt treatment really and make it suit you but I assure you that as long as you have a conscience, this has to work.

To break a habit, you have to realize it first and then you can begin to solve the problem.