Break a Bad Habit Spread

Break a Bad Habit Spread – This spread was designed form an article I read. Unfortunately I don’t have a resource for it to give credit. I posted to article below the spread. Read the article and if you feel led to get a spread to compliment the work of breaking a bad habit and replacing it with a better one I believe it will be very powerful exercise for you.

The Cards

1. Identify the habit.

2. Understand the reason for your habit.

3. Brainstorm and implement replacements.

4. Remove triggers.

5. Visualize success.

6. Forgive yourself for faltering.

6 Steps To Breaking Your Bad Habits

(And Replacing Them With Better Options!)

Virtually everyone has at least one bad habit that they wish they could rid themselves of. However, the actual definition of a habit is a “regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up”, which makes it rather clear how difficult it is to break those pesky habits. Yet, it is possible—keep reading to learn 6 steps that can assist you in breaking your bad habits and developing better, healthier options to replace them.

Step 1: Identify (and Acknowledge) the Habit

Of course, before you can break your bad habits, you need to both identify and acknowledge them. Take note of when and where they tend to pop up throughout your daily routine. Plus, acknowledge the habit itself and why it isn’t healthy for you to keep it in your life. Doing so can help give you the motivation to work towards replacing it with a more positive and productive habit using the next steps outlined below.

Step 2: Understand the Reason for Your Habit

Bad habits rarely just start out of nowhere. They’re typically in response to certain feelings in our life, like stress, loneliness, or a lack of control, to name a few. In the first step, you took note of when and where your habits presented themselves. Now, look deeper to understand why they’re presenting themselves. Taking some time over a few days to uncover these reasons will allow you to look past the habit and discover how it began and therefore, how you can work on breaking it.

Step 3: Brainstorm and Implement Replacements

Simply put, bad (and good) habits can’t solve all of the problems in your life that they’re responding to. That’s why replacing your bad habits with healthier responses is important. You’ll still feel stressed, but instead of turning to unhealthy foods or biting your nails, you can find a healthier way to de-stress, like exercising, meditating, or talking to someone. Remember, if the underlying problem is something that is causing you major concern, more substantial steps can be taken to get to the root of it as opposed to just pivoting to a healthier outlet.

Step 4: Remove Triggers

No one is superhuman, which means we can all easily be tempted to fall back into our bad habits. Typically, these temptations come from triggers around us that give us that hard-to-ignore urge to indulge, despite knowing it’s not a productive action. Therefore, if you truly want to succeed in breaking your bad habits, work on ridding your environment of triggers. Eventually, it could be that you’ll feel strong enough in your newer habits to slowly introduce those triggers back into your life and avoid them nonetheless.

Step 5: Visualize Success

We all love to daydream. As it turns out, you can use your daydreams as a tool to help you break your bad habits! Visualizing your success can be an incredibly effective way to actually achieve your goals, whatever they may be. In this case, imagine yourself performing your healthier habits in your day-to-day routine. Consider details and specifics to make it feel more realistic and before you know it, you’ll be achieving your goals in real life too!

Step 6: Forgive Yourself for Faltering

As we mentioned before, no one is perfect, and that means that from time to time, you may revert to your old, bad habits. However, keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you failed, just that you faltered in your journey towards better habits and therefore, it’s important to offer yourself forgiveness and get right back on the right track. Often, missteps like these can lead to people giving up the whole endeavor. Instead of doing this, understand what caused you to falter and work on correcting that for the future.

As it turns out, breaking your bad habits is easier than you may have thought! Follow this simple and easy 6-step guide and soon, you’ll have replaced your bad habits with better, healthier, and more positive ones.