How to Break a Bad Habit

Everyone has at least one bad habit that they'd like to quit. As long as the habit is minor it can be stopped with these simple steps.

1. Don't Try to Be Perfect - Sometimes people can set up all or nothing attitudes for themselves when they want to stop a bad habit. But breaking a habit that you do every day and that you really enjoy can be very difficult to stop if you vow to do never do it again. For instance if you'd like to stop drinking soda pop, trying to go cold turkey might be really difficult if you drink three or four cans of it a day.

Don't be so hard on yourself and try to set a realistic goal. Instead of drinking three cans of soda a day cut back to one can a day for a couple of weeks so that you won't feel so deprived at first. When those two weeks pass, cut down to one can every two or three days, until you feel ready to give it up forever.

But realize that if you slip up every once in awhile and go back to your bad habit that it's not the end of your world. When you give yourself some to room to occasionally make mistakes it will keep you from feeling badly about yourself if you do, and it won't make you give up completely and go back to your old habit. When you mess up notice it, enjoy it, and then make a commitment to get back on track and move on.

2. Replace the Old Habit With a New One - When you have a bad habit that you'd like to break sometimes it's great to replace it with a better habit. It will make you feel better about yourself, and it can make the transitioning process easier and more enjoyable for you.

If you think you spend too much time watching TV cut your TV time down, and use those extra hours to exercise, or to catch up on some reading. You'll feel better when you get in shape or when you can quote Shakespeare.

3. When You Complete Your Goal Reward Yourself - When you have a bad habit that you know you need to break but you can't get up enough motivation to do so, set a goal and make plans to reward yourself when you've accomplished it. Reward yourself with something that you've wanted for a while, or something that you'd never buy yourself ordinarily.