How to Eliminate Bad Habits

Book Title: The Compound Effect             

Book chapter: Habits

Author:Darren Hardy  Reviewed by: Jason Cheng Qi Quan

        Everyone of us has own dreams and goal. We are motivated and work hard to achieve it. However, sometimes we are  procrastinate and self-sabotage. Why? Bad habits. Habit is a routine that we execute a task unconsciously. If we don't identify it,it may drag us in the wrong direction. Bad habits can be classified as mental or physical. We can't see the consequences because the effect is very small. However, it will compound and lead to a stressful situation.The bad habit is detrimental to our life becuase it will cause us less motivation and loss. It is difficult to change a bad habit but it is not impossible. Here are some tips on how to avoid bad habits and transform them into a good ones.

        The first way is to identify your triggers. What kind of scenario is triggering you to do something which is non-beneficial to you?What emotions provoke your bad habits? What situations prompt your bad habits?  Before standing meeting? Social gathering? Dating? Think about it. Sometimes we all are vulnerable to our emotions, heartbroken words and so on. Identify it and write it down on a piece of paper.

        Second way is to keep the items away  that trigger your bad habits away from your eyesight. . Remove the items that cause you trigger your bad habits. If you are addicted to snacks and soft drinks, remove them from your kitchen. If you are lost control when playing games from your phone,uninstall the application from your phone. It will help you to have a better chance to eliminate bad habits.

        Do you know that bad habit is triggered easily when you are frustrated and in bad emotions?  This is because we are easily lost control when our emotion is bad and low energy. Willpower is insufficient to prevent the occurence of bad habits. How to prevent frustration and make our minds back into peace? Clean the room.When is your last time doing room cleaning? Are your room look tidy and comfortable for you? If the answer is no, spend some time cleaning your room.  Room cleaning is important because it helps us to clean the clutter in our minds too. In our life ,we encounter a lot of situations that trigger us to overthink and can't focus on the moment. If you are feeling stressed and frustrated, spend some time cleaning your room. 

        Third way is ease in. Ease in means that overcome the bad habits step by step. For example, you are afraid to jump into swimming pool in the early morning because it is too cold! Wait a minute, it means that we are not jumping into it anymore? No ! No! No! we can go into the swimming pool slowly by using the ladder. Touch the water slowly using your leg, if you feel ok, then immerse more your body into the  swimming pool again. Feel it. At last, you are in the swimming pool.  It is similar to overcoming a bad habit. For example, some of your  bad habits are existed in your life for many years.Sleep late, drink alcohol. It is difficult to stop bad habits now because our mind has been programmed for them. Instead of thinking to eliminate permanently in the beginning, try to start with a small step. If you usally sleep late and want to sleep early, try to practice sleeping 10 minutes early from your normal time.Then 20 minutes,30 minutes until you reach your target time! For me I have a bad habit of overthinking. To avoid overthinking, I practice breathing. Breathing helps to relieve all  anxiety or stress slowly. 

                   An Alternative way to ease in is to jump in. Jumping in means eliminating bad habits in the beginning. Remove bad habits with willpower and why power.  It is very uncomfortable in the beginning, however your body can withstand temporary struggling.Your body will self-regulate and adapt to it. It is similar that in the working environment. When you are promoted from engineer to manager, that is a major change in your career. Although you are not ready, you are required to jump in and improve along the way. 

        Lastly, We are human and we are not perfect. It is very normal to have bad habits and don't blame the external factor. Instead of blaming at the same place , we can try to calm down and think, how can we change to change the world that we like? Improve along the way in your life journey. Wish you good luck!