Break Your Bad Habits in 150 Pages: A Hero's Journey

By Nick Lugo

Bad habits have become the norm in our society. Everybody struggles with them. Overeating, smoking, procrastination, overuse of devices, video games, and countless others have plagued our society. Worse still, the temptations are getting stronger every day. And they are unavoidable.

While some would propose making the temptati

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Dec 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781636762838

Book preview

Break Your Bad Habits in 150 Pages

Break Your Bad Habits in 150 Pages

A Hero’s Journey

Nick Lugo

New Degree Press

Copyright © 2020 Nick Lugo

All rights reserved.

Break Your Bad Habits in 150 Pages

A Hero’s Journey

ISBN

978-1-63676-613-3 Paperback

978-1-63676-282-1 Kindle Ebook

978-1-63676-283-8 Ebook

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction—My Story

List of Common Bad Habits:

Part 1. The Call to Adventure

Chapter 1. The Choice

Part 2. Refusal of the Call

Chapter 2. The Hero’s Refusal

Chapter 3. Doubt—Can I?

Chapter 4. Desire—Should I?

Chapter 5. Fear—Will I?

Part 3. Meeting the Characters

Chapter 6. Your Inner Beast

Chapter 7. Your Inner Hero

Part 4. Crossing the Threshold

Chapter 8. The Guardian at the Gate

Part 5. Discovering Your Inner Hero

Chapter 9. The Quest for Meaning

Chapter 10. Your Chapter: Understanding You

Chapter 11. The Hero’s Responsibilities

Chapter 12. Set Your Target

Chapter 13. Your Triggers

Chapter 14. Your Why to Quit

Chapter 15. Your Mantra

Part 6. Trials and Tribulations

Chapter 16. Training

Part 7. The Confrontation

Chapter 17. January Twelfth

Part 8. Transformation

Chapter 18. The Hero’s Transformation

Chapter 19. Update Your Who

Part 9. Return to the Ordinary World

Chapter 20. Facing the World

Appendix A: Moderation Doesn’t Work

References

For my mother and father,

who never stop encouraging me to follow my dreams.

Acknowledgments

Writing this book was quite rewarding at times but was also quite miserable. These people were the ones who got me through those moments. Without them, this book would not be here today. These wonderful people my family and friends, but they are also my motivators. Whenever my obstacles felt insurmountable, I thought about my amazing support system and remembered one simple fact: this book is for them.

I created this book to help my loved ones improve their lives. That’s it. I started writing this book because I realized almost everyone has problem with self-control, and I wanted to guide them.

The first step to solving any problem is by realizing there is one. Yet, speaking about bad habits is taboo in our society (obviously because nobody wants to think about their failures). I wanted to open up that dialog, offering helpful solutions and wisdom. I hope I can do that for you.

With that said, I want to first thank my support system at large because these people are so important to me. I am so humbled to have your support.

Aunt Beth

Aaron Kipnis

Abbigail Vickney

Ajayvir Sandhu

Alexa Cucchiara

Allan Grudsky

Andrew Capro

Angelo Cagnina

Anthony Buzzetta

Anthony Mentesana

Ashley Whipple

Ayush Jain

Bianca Teves

Brandon Lee

Brennan Skirzenski

Brian Chung

Caleb Harper

Cameron Leifer

Cameron Scott

Carlos Carpizo

Caryn Ratner

Chris Portugal

Christian Pittari

Colby Gordon

Cristian Rial

Dad

Danielle Arena

David Buneta

Dylan Portnoy

Emily Schwadron

Emily Sun

Eric Chen

Eric Koester

Geoffrey Alintoff

Gianna Tricomi

Hannah Chamley

Hannah Zwirn

Hogene Park

Jack Null

Jack Werther

Jake Miller

Jared Ceitlin

Jeremy Mack

John Bennett

John Saunders

Jonathan Lugo

Jordan Levy

Joscelyn Ward

Kayla Lemma

Kelsey Dowd

Krishna Talamati

Lenny Kaznachey

Loredana Lohan

Madison Carducci

Maria Criscuolo

Matt Henry

Matthew Cioffi

Matthew O’Neill

Max Eleftherio

McKenna Wylam

Michael Detinich

Michael Nausedas

Mom

Niceo and Edith Lugo

Nicholas D’Souza

Nicholas Veneziano

Nick Dipietrantonio

Nick Lugo

Nicole Bendik

Nicole Grossbaum

Nicole Hettling

Nirvi Desai

Paul Cappuzzo

Peyton Daggy

Rahul Rana

Rebecca Root

Ricky Miles

Ronak Shah

Ryan Luby

Sam Berkman

Sam Zuber

Sandra von der Fecht

Sean Zentner

Shawn Konichowsky

Shreya Polk

Sid Nandiwada

Sonny Hwang

Soorya Das

Stephanie Yuen

Stephen Franke

Stephen Myers

Steven Rigg

The Aliscio Family

The Brand Family

The Carara Family

The Giuca Family

The Hyman Family

The Klag Family

The Levine Family

The Lore Family

The Martin Family

The Martini Family

The Procaccio Family

The Rial Family

The Russo Family

The Sabbagh Family

The Schnack Family

The Schwitzer Family

The Servetah Family

The Simineri Family

The Vento Family

Thomas Edralin

Tiffany Cocolicchio

Troy Mock

Wendy Douglas

Zac Kaufman

Zachary Lugo

Zack Levine

Zain Sohail

Thank you to my publishing company New Degree Press which supplied me with an abundance of professional editors, weekly author calls, and finally published my book. Brian Bies, you are amazing.

I wanted to give a loving thank you to my amazing friend-editors, Brian Chung, Paul Cappuzzo, Matt Henry, and Emily Giuca. These kind souls took a tremendous amount of time out of their lives to help my writing efforts. I was able to bounce ideas back and forth with them and implement a ton of their feedback.

Next I wanted to thank Eric Koester, the person who convinced me to go on this crazy journey. Through his Creator Institute, I collaborated with hundreds of other authors, and we worked through our collective struggles together. Without Eric, I literally would not have a book right now.

There is also one special friend who helped me immeasurably on my journey. Rahul Rana and I made a pact to both write books simultaneously through Eric Koester’s Creator Institute, and he has never left my side during the entire process. For ten grueling months, Rahul was my rock. Whenever I needed ideas, advice, or simple motivation, Rahul was the first person I called. He has always been there for me, and I couldn’t have imagined writing this book without his friendship.

To all of my professional editors, you guys were absolutely incredible. Kim LaCoste, Melody Delgado Lorbeer, and Mackenzie Joyce, I could always count on you to improve my writing quality. Plus, I was absolutely clueless about citations, formatting, and many other areas, so I was thrilled to have your help.

Finally, I wanted to thank my family. Mom, Dad, Jon, and Zach, you guys are always there for me no matter what. I could not be more grateful.

Introduction—My Story

When I was in high school, I had almost all of the bad habits you can imagine. I was mostly known as a chronic procrastinator, completing my homework a few minutes before class began. Instead of doing work, I wasted most of my time on social media sites, playing video games, and eating unhealthy foods. School never motivated me to do anything, so I found myself dedicated to nothing. I had bursts of motivation to go to the gym which typically fizzled out pretty quickly. The rest of my generation, more or less, suffered the same fate.

One day, as I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, I awoke. I unwittingly stumbled upon the statistics on American obesity. I learned that 71.6 percent of American adults are overweight!¹ That’s 172 million Americans. How insane is that! ² One reality immediately became clear: bad habits were the norm, not the exception.

In that moment, I took a sobering look at myself and said, If I keep going down this path, I’ll be like everybody else. Right away, I decided to eliminate my bad habits completely. I deleted my social media apps, planned out healthy meals, got a gym membership, and promised to do my homework at the right time. I started my own hero’s journey.

Then I failed. Then I kept trying. Then I kept failing. I had made a great plan, I just couldn’t execute it. I became more and more frustrated after each failed attempt, thinking I simply didn’t know enough to make a change. I began reading traditional self-help books, but my increased knowledge didn’t help me execute my plans.

If [more] information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.

Derek Sivers

Looking back, I can affirmatively say my life changed in an instant. I found my hero. One summer I had stumbled upon a YouTube video featuring Tony Robbins, a life coach who has inspired millions of people through his events and classes. In the video, he said a quote that changed my life: Why live an ordinary life when you can live an extraordinary one?³ He was right. From that moment, I dedicated myself to becoming extraordinary.

I spent that entire summer feeding myself more wisdom and enthusiasm. My new friends were Mr. Robbins and whoever he had on his podcast. Once I was exposed to those real-life heroes, there was no going back to the person I once was.

By the end of high school, I had transformed into a completely new person. I had one goal and one goal only. I wanted to be Tony Robbins. He has helped millions of people change their lives, but I wanted to help tens of millions. I finally found something meaningful to dedicate myself toward, which led me to cut out my awful habits of consuming unhealthy food, social media, and video games. They were gone. After all, my hero doesn’t waste his time like that.

It took me years to understand why breaking my bad habits became almost effortless. One moment I was struggling, and the next I was motivated. But why? The answer came down to one word: meaning. I had dedicated myself to something that could actually make a difference in the world.

Previously, I knew what I was supposed to do. I just couldn’t motivate myself to do it; I didn’t have reason. But once I found my why—my motivator—it lit a spark in me which