20 Tricks to Nuke a Bad Habit

This guest post was written by Scott Young; check out his blog here.

Are you letting bad habits rule your life? I started learning how to change habits a few years ago. Since then I’ve switched to a vegan diet, began exercising every day, started writing new articles every day, began waking up earlier and trying some wacky experiments to improve my life. Here are some ideas I’ve found useful:

Commit for a Month. Thirty days is all you need to make a habit change permanent. Less time than that and the new alternative might not be hardwired into your brain. More time and any failures to last are usually a failure of strategy, not duration.
Replace What You Lose. Your habits fulfill needs. When you suddenly cause a change, you may inadvertently cut them out. Before you make a change, write down all the benefits you currently get from your bad habit and make sure they are retained going into the new habit.
Start Small . Changing habits isn’t a matter of willpower, but patience and strategy. Don’t expect to overhaul your diet, exercise or thinking patterns in a day. Tackle one habit at a time.
Know the Benefits. Get clear in your mind what the benefits are of making a change. If making a change rationally seems good but it doesn’t feel good, it won’t stick. Emotions have more power than many of us realize.
Write it Down . Winston Churchill once said, “Plans are useless, planning is invaluable.” Writing out any commitments you make will give you clarity both to what you desire and how you intend to do it.
Swish. A technique from NLP. Visualize yourself performing the bad habit. Next visualize yourself pushing aside the bad habit and performing an alternative. Finally, end that sequence with an image of yourself in a highly positive state. See yourself picking up the cigarette, see yourself putting it down and snapping your fingers, finally visualize yourself running and breathing free. Do it a few times until you automatically go through the pattern before executing the old habit.
Tell a Friend . Get some leverage on yourself. Tell a friend your plan so you will be more likely to commit to the change.
Make it an Experiment. Be a scientist. Just try the new habit to see what it will be like, rather than a great emotional struggle. This will help keep you focused on conditioning the trial and allow you to view results with less bias.
If at First You Don’t Succeed… Most big changes aren’t going to happen the first time. It took me three attempts before I finally stuck on with exercising regularly. Now I love it. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you fail the first time; just tweak your approach and go again.
Get Out of Hazard Zones. Get yourself out of situations that can trigger your old habit. Remove junk food from your house. Don’t go to places where you might break your budget. This isn’t always possible, but do your best to avoid temptation.
Use But. A prominent habit-changing therapist once told me this great technique for changing bad thought patterns. When you start to think negative thoughts, use the word ”but” to interrupt it. ”I’m no good at this, but, if I work at it I might get better later.”
Know the Pain. Feel what will happen to you if you dont make a change. Use your imagination to enhance the image of your results should you do nothing.
Add Role Models. Start spending more time with people who live the way you want to live. Join groups and find mentors who have already adapted the habits you want to take on. They can be invaluable in giving you the positive reinforcement and guidance you need.
Stay Consistent . Try to keep as many aspects of your habit in control when conditioning to make the associations stronger. For the first month don’t just exercise a few times a week, but every day. Do things at the same time and in the same pattern to ensure your results stick.
Keep it Simple Stupid!. Habits should be one or two rules, not 20. If your plan looks like a User License Agreement from Microsoft, it’s probably too long. Keep changes simple so they will be easier to adhere to.
Remind Yourself. Put reminders of your habit around you. After spending a few years changing many habits, I’ve learned that one of the biggest ways I’ve failed is simply a poor memory. Forgetting to run a trial one day leads to two until your back where you started. Put up Post-It notes, affirmations or whatever you need to stay consistent.
Motivate Yourself. Get the motivation when things get tough. Check out 20 Motivation Hacks for some good ways to do that.
Break Down Your Goals. Use habits to get your goals. Break down your goal to be wealthy into habits of investing, frugality and entrepreneurship.
Don’t Strive for Perfection. Focus on the habits that are important and minimize those that aren’t. I’ve changed many major habits, but I’ve also learned to let minor problems exist if they distract me from the bigger picture.
Do it Now. Waiting for life? The best way to learn how to change those stubborn habits in your life is to practice. Make a change now and in a month you can have a completely new way of living.

Scott Young is a blogger at ScottHYoung.com, where he writes about productivity, motivation and getting the most out of life. This article is just an introduction … for more, check out Scott’s latest book - How to Change a Habit.

If you liked this article, please bookmark it in del.icio.us. Thanks!

20 Tricks to Nuke a Bad Habit

This guest post was written by Scott Young; check out his blog here.

Commit for a Month. Thirty days is all you need to make a habit change permanent. Less time than that and the new alternative might not be hardwired into your brain. More time and any failures to last are usually a failure of strategy, not duration.
Replace What You Lose. Your habits fulfill needs. When you suddenly cause a change, you may inadvertently cut them out. Before you make a change, write down all the benefits you currently get from your bad habit and make sure they are retained going into the new habit.
Start Small . Changing habits isn’t a matter of willpower, but patience and strategy. Don’t expect to overhaul your diet, exercise or thinking patterns in a day. Tackle one habit at a time.
Know the Benefits. Get clear in your mind what the benefits are of making a change. If making a change rationally seems good but it doesn’t feel good, it won’t stick. Emotions have more power than many of us realize.
Write it Down . Winston Churchill once said, “Plans are useless, planning is invaluable.” Writing out any commitments you make will give you clarity both to what you desire and how you intend to do it.
Swish. A technique from NLP. Visualize yourself performing the bad habit. Next visualize yourself pushing aside the bad habit and performing an alternative. Finally, end that sequence with an image of yourself in a highly positive state. See yourself picking up the cigarette, see yourself putting it down and snapping your fingers, finally visualize yourself running and breathing free. Do it a few times until you automatically go through the pattern before executing the old habit.
Tell a Friend . Get some leverage on yourself. Tell a friend your plan so you will be more likely to commit to the change.
Make it an Experiment. Be a scientist. Just try the new habit to see what it will be like, rather than a great emotional struggle. This will help keep you focused on conditioning the trial and allow you to view results with less bias.
If at First You Don’t Succeed… Most big changes aren’t going to happen the first time. It took me three attempts before I finally stuck on with exercising regularly. Now I love it. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you fail the first time; just tweak your approach and go again.
Get Out of Hazard Zones. Get yourself out of situations that can trigger your old habit. Remove junk food from your house. Don’t go to places where you might break your budget. This isn’t always possible, but do your best to avoid temptation.
Use But. A prominent habit-changing therapist once told me this great technique for changing bad thought patterns. When you start to think negative thoughts, use the word ”but” to interrupt it. ”I’m no good at this, but, if I work at it I might get better later.”
Know the Pain. Feel what will happen to you if you dont make a change. Use your imagination to enhance the image of your results should you do nothing.
Add Role Models. Start spending more time with people who live the way you want to live. Join groups and find mentors who have already adapted the habits you want to take on. They can be invaluable in giving you the positive reinforcement and guidance you need.
Stay Consistent . Try to keep as many aspects of your habit in control when conditioning to make the associations stronger. For the first month don’t just exercise a few times a week, but every day. Do things at the same time and in the same pattern to ensure your results stick.
Keep it Simple Stupid!. Habits should be one or two rules, not 20. If your plan looks like a User License Agreement from Microsoft, it’s probably too long. Keep changes simple so they will be easier to adhere to.
Remind Yourself. Put reminders of your habit around you. After spending a few years changing many habits, I’ve learned that one of the biggest ways I’ve failed is simply a poor memory. Forgetting to run a trial one day leads to two until your back where you started. Put up Post-It notes, affirmations or whatever you need to stay consistent.
Motivate Yourself. Get the motivation when things get tough. Check out 20 Motivation Hacks for some good ways to do that.
Break Down Your Goals. Use habits to get your goals. Break down your goal to be wealthy into habits of investing, frugality and entrepreneurship.
Don’t Strive for Perfection. Focus on the habits that are important and minimize those that aren’t. I’ve changed many major habits, but I’ve also learned to let minor problems exist if they distract me from the bigger picture.
Do it Now. Waiting for life? The best way to learn how to change those stubborn habits in your life is to practice. Make a change now and in a month you can have a completely new way of living.

If you liked this article, please bookmark it in del.icio.us. Thanks!

Posted on 5 July 2007 in Habits |
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Comments (20)

Ryan Stewart Says:

July 5th, 2007, 6:03 am

Nice article Scott. Methinks it’s one of your best.

Personally, I’d like to see the articles on your site be about this length. I read my feeds as a way to reward myself during productivity sprints so long articles are tough to digest.

In any case, the writing is great and the concepts are solid. Keep up the good work.

kleanchap Says:

July 5th, 2007, 6:15 am

Nice article. A supportive article for this would be on “How to prioritize habits or goals”

This is a very good starting point though.

Keep up the good work.

William Profet from OneJobTwoSalaries.com Says:

July 5th, 2007, 9:36 am

Hi Leo,

I’ve got a simple action-list for Nuking Bad Patterns:

1) Identify the bad pattern.

2) Catch and break the bad pattern when you use it.

3) Attach massive pain to the situation in which you continue to have that bad pattern.

4) Find the better half of this pattern. Find a positive pattern to exchange the bad one.

5) Attach massive pleasure to the new positive habit.

6) Repeat 1) - 5) for at least 7-14 days on consistent basis and the bad pattern is gone!

Note: The original author is Tony Robbins, but I have made some changes that work for me :)).

Regards and good luck!
William

Balfour Says:

July 5th, 2007, 9:47 am

Great article. I’m putting this in my inspiration file.
William, how about an example of your technique where it’s worked for you?

David Finch Says:

July 5th, 2007, 10:22 am

Leo, thanks for introducing me to another great blogger. I’m always amazed that when you break everything down it still comes to taking daily steps forward putting action toward the end goal.

You can dream about it, talk about it, or just do something about it!

Ryan Says:

July 5th, 2007, 10:57 am

Just a note on smoking. You can by-pass all that habit changing work by simply reading “Allan Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking”. It’s about a 7 hour read for $20. I’ve been happily quit for 2 and a half years. No will power, no goal setting, no nothing. Just done! I haven’t tried his other books, but he has them on weight loss, alcoholism and other drug addictions.

Hope that information helps someone. It sure safed my life!

Grayson De Ritis Says:

July 5th, 2007, 11:12 am

Cold turkey seems to be the best method for me, but for those who can’t quit right off the bat, take a few minutes before committing your next bad habit and remind yourself of how guilty you’ll feel later. Knowing you stopped and thought rather than diving in, will be enough of a rewarding feeling that you’ll want to permanently give it up.

William Profet from OneJobTwoSalaries.com Says:

July 5th, 2007, 12:01 pm

@Balfour: You gave me an idea to write a post about that and it already online. You can see the entire “Bad Habit Demolition Sequence” and an example of its application here.

Leo Says:

July 5th, 2007, 12:40 pm

Note to all: Please forgive me as there were a number of errors in this post due to a problem that occurred when I pasted Scott’s post into WordPress … I should have corrected them before publishing the post, and though I did correct a few errors, I wasn’t nearly careful enough. I apologize to you, and to Scott, who was kind enough to write this great post.

My thanks to another commenter for pointing out the errors … I’ve deleted the comment as it no longer applies.

On another note, I’d like to ask everyone to please be polite to my guest posters. :) They are kind enough to write for Zen Habits and I greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

NLP Trainer Says:

July 5th, 2007, 14:41 pm

There is a great “pattern” in NLP called the Swish, it’s a little process you run through in your mind to eliminate unwanted habits. Of course, some habits are beneficial, for example, the habit of eating healthy food or going to the gym twice a week. Replacing those bad habits with good habits is the way to go.

TallDave Says:

July 5th, 2007, 17:02 pm

Does a habit have to be daily in order to be considered a habit?
-
What if you only have a smoke or drink or whatever when you are under large amounts of stress? There is no mention of situational habits. The same solutions above (mostly) can be used by people who consistently fall in love with the wrong person, are easily angered by people they have grudges with, avoid holiday dinners because of a bad memory…….. These people also have habits which need to be changed.
-
“Humans are creatures of habit.” ..this is one of the secrets to life.

captain Says:

July 5th, 2007, 17:13 pm

That’s an excellent list and the best thing about it is that it’s not too preachy.

I’m in the process of persuading myself to give up smoking and I’ll bookmark this for when I have made the committment!

Wow - that sounds like a total cop out, but I firmly believe that I have to WANT to do to make a change, not just want to give it a try. This philosophy has worked in other areas (for me).

TallDave Says:

July 5th, 2007, 18:19 pm

@captain: “There is no try, only do.” -Yoda

Carm Says:

July 5th, 2007, 18:52 pm

Scott,

Thank you very much for a well-done and helpful article.

Balfour Says:

July 5th, 2007, 21:14 pm

Thank you William.

Marc Says:

July 6th, 2007, 11:44 am

Interesting… I am trying to learn to get up early — right now I am hitting noon every day except when I have to be to work in the morning — and have been in a bad cycle of making up my mind to get up early, setting a ridiculously early alarm, and then snoozing through it, then giving up.

I think I will instead practice just getting up without snoozing, first by setting my alarm for noon and getting up after it immediately goes off… only after that is a good habit will I move the time down.

Charles Patterson Says:

July 6th, 2007, 11:57 am

Great tips. Very useful to help change those habits that cause bad health, overweight, and waste money.

Online TV Says:

July 6th, 2007, 19:57 pm

Overall good tips, compelling yourself is the best way.

HiddenHabits Says:

August 20th, 2007, 16:14 pm

Awesome tips. I’ve posted them to the “Help” section of HiddenHabits.com. We hope our site can help people admit their habits and find support from others in the same situation.

rainer Says:

March 17th, 2008, 15:02 pm

I like this post, especially the visualizing. When I gave up smoking, there was a time when I was in danger to start smoking again. Visualizing helped me to stay clean.

Good list. Thank you.