You Have No Bad Habits

Is there a bad habit you'd like to get rid of? Viewing it as bad gives it power over you.

“The attention you give to your bad habits is the fountain from which they draw their strength.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson

Habits are not good or bad. They are effective or ineffective.

Perceiving a habit as bad gives it power over you. You view it through an emotional lens. Perceiving the same habit as merely ineffective melts away the emotion. You view it through a more objective lens.

As Wayne W. Dyer wrote, “change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”

People bear their bad habits like crosses, but ineffective habits are merely annoying. Such is the power of perception.

Changing perception is the equivalent of showing up. It is the first step in breaking a habit. Once the emotion is blunted or removed entirely from the equation, you can focus on starving the habit of time and attention.

• Hide or remove its cues.

• Replace it with something more effective.

• If the urge still strikes, remind yourself of how ineffective it is.

When you view habits objectively, something interesting happens. Habits you think effective may at times be ineffective and vice versa.

• Working out is an effective habit to establish, but if you don’t allow proper recovery time, you can over train and develop nagging injuries.

• Drinking heavily is an ineffective habit, but if you drink in moderation, a glass of wine can form an effective habit for relaxing at the end of a long week.

• Snacking can be an ineffective habit that leads to overeating. It can also be an effective habit for curbing hunger and preventing binge eating.

Change the language to break the power bad habits have over you. Reduce them to ineffective habits. Get a leg up in your efforts to either replace them or transform them into effective habits.