We can say that all of us do have at least one bad habit in our life, and that’s the fact, right?  No one is perfect, but somehow we do have a bad habit as another way of dealing our boredom and strain in life. We all know how to differentiate between bad habits and good habits, isn’t it? For instance, bad habits are things like tapping our foot, dilly-dally, blathering, angry for no reason, drinking too much alcohol, staying up too late and many more.

It can’t be denied that breaking a bad habit is indeed difficult. Do you know why? This is wholly because we are used to it. Sometimes, this bad habit can bring negative effects to those around us and of course, to ourselves as well. Be it mentally , emotionally or physically. And for these reasons, we need to find ways to substitute a bad habit with a good habit. Hence, here are some powerful ways for eliminating our bad habits, which in turn can assist us improve ourselves.

1. Identify the causes of your bad habits

Eradicating any bad habits is truly hard and therefore, we need to take some time to figure out the underlying causes that lead to our bad behaviors, in order to fix them. For example, if we incline to splurge on unnecessary things, is it because we have too much credit cards or we don’t know how to manage our finance well? Or are there other reasons? This strategy enables us to understand what triggers our bad habits. Hopefully, the following questions can help us elicit the reasons why we have bad habits in the first place:

What kinds of bad habit that I have?

How often this unhealthy habit happens?

Do I feel regret after it happens?

Are there people involved?

Why did I do this bad habit?

By identifying as many triggers as possible, we will surely be able to eliminate our unhealthy habits and replace them with the good ones.

2. Think of the negative effects of your bad habits

Another way to curb a bad habit is to instantly think of its negative impacts. In other words, we need to mull over the consequences that we are going to get if we did a certain bad habit. Let’s say what are we going to do when the movie is calling us to procrastinate? We need to immediately think that this action will only delay our daily tasks or routines. We have a lot of works to do and therefore, watching a movie is not the right thing to do at the moment. This tip will help us to think wisely before doing any bad actions/habits and to make sure whether those actions are beneficial or harmful, not only to ourselves but to others around us as well.

3. Be grateful for what you have

We all confront different obstacles in life. Apart from keep yearning or complaining about the problems or matters that affected us mentally and emotionally, we need to always keep reminding ourselves to be thankful. Grateful for what God has given and blessed us in any ways despite the life’s hitches and challenges of Covid-19 pandemic that we all have to confront for the present time. If we don’t have this kind of attitude, we probably will end up doing bad things or starting bad habits and experiencing extreme stress in everyday lives. Thus, let’s be grateful everyone! We just need to follow the SOPs given and stay safe. We can do this together.

4. Always reflect on yourself

Furthermore, we need to constantly reflect on ourselves. Despite of gossiping, accusing and belittle others, we have to look into ourselves instead. Do we practice what we preach? What kind of person are we? Thus, we need to find the time to contemplate and know ourselves better. By finding ways to improve and perceive ourselves, we will be a tolerant and kind person to people. This is because at the end of that day, our characters indeed reflect the type of person we are.

5. Love yourself and stop comparing yourself to others

We normally tend to compare ourselves with others. Wow, that person has a very luxurious car. What a cool smartphone that he or she got, I think I need to buy a new one, that’s it, and the list of examples goes on. No…actually we don’t have to do this. If we keep associating and comparing ourselves to others, we will only feel more stressed and intend to continuously do the bad habits. Each of us is unique, special and beautiful in various ways. The keys are to stop comparing and love ourselves so that in this way, we will be able to move forward appropriately towards the right direction and create more meaningful memories. Remember, life is short. Let’s take a good care of ourselves everyone. We all hope for the best ending when leaving this world. Hence, we only have to remove any bad habits that possibly will affect us negatively.

6. Surround yourself with positive and appropriate environments

If we want to change our bad habit, we need to learn and be amongst those who intend to act one. It will become a booster to assist us change our bad habit and replace it with a positive one. For instance, if we know we cannot manage our finance very well and lack of knowledge on financial management, we can find ways to start learning and elevating our financial literacy. We can start enrolling in financial courses, taking part in a relevant circle of community and meeting up online with an experienced financial advisor/coach. This is because, being a part of an appropriate community that have the same intentions and mindset will guide us to build more positive habits rather that the unhealthy ones. Most significantly, other than finding the correct channel to help us curb our bad habit, we also need to start creating a positive atmosphere in our home first.  Only then we will be able to have a good environment to start the day with positive ambiences and moods, to encourage ourselves to be happy as well as become a healthier and better person every single day.

Now that we have these constructive ways for fixing and changing our bad habits, we just need to work on it and start taking the action. One step at a time and our future self will appreciate and thank us for it.