Everyone has bad habits. It might be that you always decide to go for the dessert despite hoping against hope that you’ll lose weight this week. It might be perhaps a glass or two of wine every other day, something you know is perhaps not that destructive, but you’d really rather stop feeling impulsed to do so. You may find yourself spending too much time watching Netflix each evening, instead hoping to improve your sleeping quality. Of course, as habits go these are pretty tepid. Some people struggle with real addictions, gambling issues, perhaps even more niche habits that are hard to stop.
How can we fight our bad habits? Often when it comes to doing so, we can feel overwhelmed. It’s hard to admit we’re in the throes of something out of our control, and even admitting so can feel like the first failure of personality.
Are there healthy ways to alternate our approach? Absolutely, provided you foster the correct mindset. Note: the advice in this list can help tremendously, but for more serious addictions, professional medical and psychological help will be needed. Still, it can never hurt to start here:
Build The New
Socrates once said ‘The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.’ This means that the title of this post is disingenuous. Perhaps fighting the old is a waste of your time. Perhaps all it does is remind you of the difficulty of the old in the first place, submerging you in those difficult emotions and unfortunately rendering you less capable than you might have been.
To build the new will take time, but it is the best way forward. Try to establish new habits, establish new friends with much healthier attitudes, ingest new content via the books you read, the podcasts you listen to and your inspirational figures. Alternating habits, such as using SMOK coils in vape pens rather than smoking, can help you get started in the right direction. This can all have a profound effect on your happiness, and help you build the new in the long term.
Socialize
Mentioning building new friends is not something to be thrown out there and not explored. It can have significant effects on your daily senes of courage, of having someone to lean on, and sometimes, someone to simply talk to. It can be the difference between believing in yourself or feeling ashamed of yourself. If combining your push towards a better life with someone else, you can find yourself bolstered by not wanting to let the other down, and it’s amazing just how much progress can be made this way. Socializing is essential to our renewed health, and so doing this can help you fight bad habits perhaps the most efficiently.
Take Pride
Taking pride in your smallest achievements can help you push towards further achievements. That’s it. That’s how well you can snowball your progress if you take pride in your achievements – genuinely taking pride, caring for the result and pushing forward to the next result. Understand that this change, while inspired, is something that would be impossible without your efforts. This can help you feel good about yourself – perhaps the best idea when trying to adjust your self-image.
With these simple guidelines, fixing your bad habits will be much more promising than fighting them.
Mandy X
Image: Pexels
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
