Changing a Habit One Day at a Time

Changing a Habit One Day at a Time

Unless you’re perfect, you probably have a habit that drives you or others nuts. The conflicting nature of bad habits makes them difficult to overcome. What is your bad habit?

A couple of typical bad habits we indulge in are eating unhealthy foods and avoiding exercising.

The good news is, however, that whatever negative habit you have, you have the power to change it if you want to.

Consider these strategies for inspiration to break your negative habit now:

1. Avoid getting overwhelmed. Realize your goal now is to simply decrease the occurrence of the negative behavior. As you endeavor to gradually reduce the behavior, you’ll feel better and more in control. Eventually, you may be able to stop the habit.

2. Focus on a daily mini-goal to help you make small adjustments. Let’s say you typically eat more breads and carbohydrates than recommended. You have two bowls of cereal for breakfast and eat two sandwiches for lunch. You think you could reduce your daily carbs. But you’re caught in a vicious cycle and keep eating the same things each day.

• Set a specific mini-goal to reduce carb intake by making one small change daily. You’ll be motivated to turn around your negative habit. In this example, a daily goal to reduce breads at lunch strengthens resolve to eat fewer carbs.

• At lunch, rather than eating two sandwiches, add extra vegetables to your sandwich. Experiment with different spices or condiments to make your food more interesting. You’ll still have a filling lunch, but you’ll reduce your bread intake by half. Use mindfulness to concentrate on the act of eating using all of your senses. Really focusing on your food will change your relationship with eating. Slowing down while eating will give your body time to feel full.

• After you’ve persevered in altering your habit for six weeks to two months, then you can set another mini-goal to replace your second bowl of cereal with a bowl of fruit instead. You’ll feel optimistic and ready to tackle another mini-goal in your quest to reduce carbs. Once you feel you have achieved the mini-goal, it is time to move on to the next one.

3. For avoiding exercise getting rid of a bad habit means adding a new one. Adding movement opportunities to your day is building a positive habit. A mini-goal could simply be parking further from the entrance to a building, adding a few minutes of walking as part of everyday activities. Another mini-goal could be using stairs instead of elevators, turning a normal action into another opportunity for movement.

4. Although getting rid of a bad habit is a challenge, you can break your negative habit using these one-day-at-a-time techniques.