How To Break Your Bad Habits

You all know the feeling when you are doing something you told yourself you do not want to do.

It is like an inner conflict. Your primal part is unconsciously doing what it wants while the real YOU helplessly watch in despair.

Be On Your Side

Blaming yourself will not solve this inner conflict. Realize instead that all of you are on the same side. You have algorithms that do not serve you well in the long term.

Algorithms are a good analogy since you consist of many automatic processes, like breathing, heart rate, immune system, perception, etc. Habits are, after all, your automatic behaviors and personal algorithms.

Fortunately (although it requires some patience), you have the influence to reprogram your behavioral algorithms.

Inversion of The Four Laws

The inversion of the four laws presented here (from the best-seller Atomic Habits) are:

• Make it invisible. Remove the triggers.
• Make it unattractive. Figure out what the underlying want is and perform a better way to do it. Thus, you do not need to depend on this habit alone.
• Make it difficult. Now you want to increase the friction and the barriers as much as possible.