How to break a bad habit (and replace it with a good one)

December 22, 2017 written by Lane Goodwin

Good habits get you closer to accomplishing your goals. Bad habits drive you further away from your goals.

Your goals may be losing weight, building muscle, building passive income streams and quit your job, play a musical instrument, write a book, success with women, and so on.

Examples of Good Habits

Some examples of good habits are:

• Exercise
• Eating healthy foods
• Practicing art (Playing a musical instrument, painting, sculpting and so on)
• Working on your business
• Reading books
• Writing a journal
• Spending less money than you make
• Approaching girls
• Waking up early
• Positive thinking
• Planning

Examples of Bad Habits

Some examples of bad habits are:

• Watching TV
• Playing video games
• Killing time on social media
• Drinking – smoking – drugs
• Overspending, getting into debt
• Eating junk food
• Gambling
• Watching porn

Why Do People Have Bad Habits?

Humans are prone to take the path of least resistance. Instant gratification looks more alluring than delayed gratification. For example, if you are bored you may watch TV, kill time on social media, play video games or drink alcohol.

Corporations exploit the human weakness of instant gratification.

Why Is It Hard to Form Good Habits?

Acquiring good habits requires discipline and the ability to delay gratification. At the age of instant gratification, discipline and delayed gratification go neglected.

Bad habits rewire your brain’s reward mechanism in the favor of instant gratification. If you have bad habits, it becomes harder to see the benefits of discipline and delayed gratification.

Why the Habits of the Highly Successful People Look So Out of Reach?

Throughout history, people have always been curious about what makes highly successful people achieve so much.

The habits of highly successful people are no secret. They are studied extensively by many researchers. You read them in books and all over the internet.

The problem is, when you see such a list of habits, it looks not only overwhelming but also boring. Successful people seem like superhumans who live a boring life, so you may think it’s best to not be successful at all.

The good news is, you don’t need to acquire all their habits at once. In this post, I will show you how just one good habit triggers another. Then, another and so on. Like a chain reaction.

How One Good Habit Begets Another

As there are human weaknesses that corporations exploit, there are human strengths you can exploit too.

When humans taste success, they want more.

The trick is, picking up a goal, starting with a habit, and practicing it until it sticks.

Here are some examples of how it works:

John wants to lose weight. He starts counting his calories to restrict his eating and he starts to lose weight. Once he sees he is on the way to getting in shape, he is excited. He takes up lifting weights to accelerate the process. After he gets muscular and lean, his confidence soars and he begins to approach girls. When he begins to get girls, he no longer needs to jerk off to porn, so he quits watching porn. After a while, he is bored with the girls in his town. He decides to build a location independent business and move to counties or cities with better girls…

It all started with losing weight but now John is a location independent successful businessman who is in great shape and has a harem of beautiful women.

James is fed up with his job and decides to start a business. He needs to work. He notices that he works better in the mornings. In order to wake up early, he quits drinking. He finds out that when he doesn’t drink and wakes up early, he has the energy to work out. He joins a gym and starts to lift weights in the afternoon. He starts to watch what he eats because he wants to build muscle. Finally, he gets in great shape, his business makes a lot of money and he affords to dress sharp.

It all started with getting up early to start a business, but now James not only has a lucrative business but also he doesn’t drink anymore, is in great shape and dresses sharp.

Start Today

Pick up a goal and start with only one habit to execute every day until it sticks.

Just one good habit can translate to another good habit and, like a chain reaction, you will have multiple good habits working in your favor every day getting you closer and closer to your goals.

Starting with just one good habit, you may eventually become one of those highly successful people.

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Job Examples of Being Accountable

Success on the job depends on more than performance. The habits you bring to the workplace affect your level of success as well. Habits are ingrained personal behaviors and practices that influence how you relate to company rules, policies and people. Poor habits create an atmosphere of discontent and conflict with fellow workers and can cause your career to derail. Good habits, of course, have the opposite effect. Examples of habits in the workplace include behavior towards attendance, punctuality, productivity, initiative, conduct and appearance.

Attendance and Punctuality

Habits associated with attendance and punctuality dictate whether or not you come to work regularly and on time. When you take the steps necessary to be at work as scheduled, you show commitment to the company attendance policy. Though an occasional unplanned absence or tardy is allowed, you do not misuse or take undue advantage of such allowances. On the other hand, when you adopt a habit of being chronically absent or late, you demonstrate a complete disregard for the company and its policies.

Productivity

Productivity habits consist of actions that support a high level of output throughout the workday. As a productive employee, you complete job assignments on time and meet both quality and quantity standards of work. To sustain productivity, you minimize time-wasting habits, such as dealing with personal issues during work hours, taking extended breaks, surfing the Internet, procrastinating and constantly checking email. If there is legitimate downtime between projects, you use that time on professional development or process improvement activities.

Initiative

Work habits associated with initiative align with being a self starter. As a self starter, you do your job without being asked. You are motivated to find solutions to problems on your own. When you need help, you ask for it rather than remain stuck and make excuses as to why a job is not finished. After you complete a job, you seek out the next important assignment or offer assistance to others as needed.

Conduct

Working well with mangers and coworkers is necessary for career advancement. Bosses expect employees to conduct themselves in a manner suitable to the workplace. Suitable conduct means using respectful behavior during interactions with bosses and coworkers, even in situations of high stress, disagreement and conflict resolution. The habits you want to avoid include use of abusive or offensive language, being argumentative and uncooperative, being rude, gossiping and bad mouthing the company, bosses and coworkers.

Appearance

Personal style and clothing choices may not be appropriate for the workplace. Your appearance should meet company dress codes. In the absence of a formal dress code, it is a good idea to mirror the style of the boss or other well-respected coworkers. In general, avoid offensive or revealing clothes and do not skimp on personal grooming. An unkempt or disheveled look, body odor and overly casual clothing, such as tattered jeans, tees and sneakers, are not workplace worthy.

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