Changing Bad Habits

Successful people have developed success habits. Those are the people you want to study and emulate. Do what they do. Read what they read. If they are local see if you can take them to lunch and ask questions. If not get a hold of some of the things they have written about or listen to them. Most successful people enjoy the opportunity to coach people along and to help them become successful. It is there way of giving back.

The trouble is most people won’t ask. They come up with excuses. They say to themselves that I am not important enough for this person to talk to me. You won’t know unless you ask. So ask them.

The successful people understand that life is a learning experience and it doesn’t stop in school. They always strive to reach the next level. Life will always give you the results of your actions. Ask yourself what actions are you taking? What are you creating? You create what you think about. Willie Hooks calls it our h.a.b.e.’s. Our habits, attitudes, beliefs and expectations. Before starting any new habit we have to know what we want. So how do we permanently change our habits? Let’s take a look!

I like the way Mark Victor Hansen has defined changing habits in his book the Power of Focus. First identify the habit you want to change. What is it about this habit that is unproductive? What can I change to make it productive and help me reach my goals? Consider the long term results. Let’s take overeating as an example. You want to lose weight. What has caused you to gain weight? Are you just eating too much? If so, why are you overeating? Is it a self-esteem issue? Is it comfort food anytime you feel bad? Boredom? This is where you can look at your habes. What is the current habit? Overeating. What is your attitude about overeating? I do it but I don’t like it. I do it because it makes me feel good when I am down in the dumps. What are your beliefs about it? I believe that if I keep gaining weight it could harm me physically and possibly even cut short my life but it still makes me feel good when I do it. What are your expectations of overeating? Are you going to gain weight from overeating? Are you going to cut back?

These are questions you need to ask yourself. So what do you do after that? Ask yourself what would it look like if I change my habit and have the habit and results that I want? Be specific on what it would look like. Envision yourself of losing that weight. How much would you weigh? What would your waist size be? How would you look in the mirror? See yourself in those jeans you haven’t fit in in years. See other people staring at you and admiring you. How would you feel? Would you have more energy? Would you be able to do things that you weren’t able to do before? See it clearly and envision it 3 or 4 times a day.

Start your action plan. Put your plan together. What do I need to do first? Set my goals. Then next I would put a diet plan together. Then I would start an exercise program. You get the idea. Put a good solid plan together. A plan should include milestone rewards and an end reward. Say you want to lose 50 lbs. Maybe for every 10 lbs you lose you will reward yourself with and ice cream cone or something that you like that you have cut out of your diet. At the end when you reach your goal maybe you will reward yourself with buying a pair of expensive jeans or whatever you decide.

So there it is in a nutshell. We have the power to change any bad habit that we don’t like. Will it be easy? Probably not but it might not be as hard as we think either. The hard part is to get started. Remember that these habits have been a part of us for a long time so don’t expect miracles at first. Use the process described above and you can overcome and change any habit that you want to change.

Keith Young
Inner Game Coach