“Burn bad habits before they burn you.” Easier said than done; but not impossible, especially when these five must-dos reap impressive results in suppressing those unhealthy personal tendencies.

Recognize your bad habits and their triggers

The first step to breaking any bad habit is recognizing it and it’s triggers. If your bad habit is something like stress eating or nail biting, it is important to know what’s triggering it. Perhaps, you are trying to avoid a big project or you foresee some difficulty ahead. Knowing your triggers is a key factor to breaking your habit.

Reward yourself

Once you find out what habits you want to change, it’s important to reward yourself for breaking bad ones. Give yourself a small reward every time you are able to break them. Doing so reinforces the good you manage to replace them with.

Don’t forget to set some milestones for yourself. Start with small goals which can be met reasonably at a set time. Then progressively set more targets of increasing difficulty to help break your bad habit instead of creating a new one. For example, if you have the unhealthy pattern of drinking soda five times a day, you can limit yourself to three at first, then gradually bring the number down to zero. Slowly, you will begin to realize that simple water is all you really need as a beverage fix.

Organize yourself

Set up a schedule to keep good track of your progress and remind you of what good things you should be doing. Grab yourself a planner. It’s an invaluable tool for setting up an actionable plan toward reinforcing your good habits and countering your bad.

Involve friends

Asking friends for support in fixing your habits can be of great help. Your friends can guide you by pointing out what you shouldn’t be doing, giving you insights, and motivating you toward picking up better habits.

Level up with professional help

There is nothing wrong with asking professionals on how to deal with your bad patterns. Pros like therapists and life coaches have loads of experience and knowledge on the matter. The most valuable input they can give you is a change of mindset and a fresh perspective. Often, viewing your problems at a different angle goes a long way toward curbing bad habits.

Photo Credit @FannyAmanda