Good Gimmicks for Breaking Bad Habits

By John Maverick

We shape our environment, and habits shape us. The key to personal development is understanding habit formation, which is the natural process in which behaviors are repeated over time and become automatic or even an Atomic Habit. You will learn that habits can begin without your intention; also, the Habits of Highly Effective People are intentional and long-lasting. "Making Good Habits Breaking Bad Habits" is also deliberately cultivated or destroyed to conform to one's personal goals and objectives. Bad habits and good habits are formed by a process in which behavior becomes habitual due to repetitive actions. The term NLP or (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) also can create Good Habits while Breaking Bad Habits. The process can be slow or quick, depending on factors such as the type of habit or the individual.

You will learn about

           

•           KEYSTONE HABITS          

•           FACTS ABOUT HABITS   

•           UNDERSTANDING HOW OUR MINDS WORK

•           THE DRASTIC CHANGE MYTH ABOUT HABITS       

•           THE OPTIMAL GROWTH RATE 

•           THE BEHAVIOR CHANGE PROBLEM  

•           HABITS OF THE MIND

           

Habits can make or break a person's life. Good habits can lead to happiness and self-actualization, whilst bad habits inhibit a person's quality of life, resulting in depression and failure.

This self-help book will teach you everything about habits, Changing Your Habits, habit formation, and much more. Now is the time to learn how to destroy that bad habit once and for all. 

Let's get started.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Maverick
• Release date: Aug 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798846308602

Book preview

Introduction

We are what we constantly do. Perfection, then, is not an act but a behavior.

–Will Durant

The successes and failures of human beings are rooted in habits. Habits can be good or bad. The technical definition of a habit is a behavior that is repeated several times and becomes more or less automatic. This means those things that we can do quite well without thinking much about them; actions that can be termed second nature. These can include tying your shoes, combing your hair, washing your hands after using the bathroom, or unplugging your iron after use. Such activities are automatic and routine when we engage in them. We often use the word ‘habit’ to mean different things when we speak. For example, one can say, I am interested in developing the habit of cycling, or I want to start the habit of reading a few pages of a book every night before I go to bed.

This means that people need to get into the routine of doing something regularly, and this causes them to develop a rigid way of doing something. "Habits are traits we display frequently and have certain elements that can be described as automatic" (Manson, 2021, p.2).

One way to make a habit stick is to ensure the beginning of an action is simple and automatic. This will enable the rest of the routine to follow naturally, even when you are not consciously thinking about the action. There are several theories that explain how habits are formed. One of them is the three R’s, which consists of a reminder, a routine, and a reward. Another way to think about the habit loop is as three essential components: Environmental cue (trigger), behavioral response (reaction), and reward.

We all have habits, and it is part of human nature. Some of the habits are part of the useful things that we do in our lives. For instance, one can polish their shoes every night in preparation for the next working day, while another individual will always ensure that the house windows are closed every night before going to bed. Other habits, such as smoking a cigarette each time one is nervous or drinking a glass of wine every evening, are not beneficial.

Habits can make or break a person’s life. Good habits can lead to happiness and self-actualization, whilst bad habits inhibit a person’s quality of life, resulting in depression and failure. To illustrate the positiveness of habits, we can look at the example of dedicated athletes. Their commitment to participating in the sport of choice, be it in the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), or National Hockey League (NHL), is a good habit which ultimately results in an exponential change in lifestyle. A professional athlete in the NFL, for example, must develop the habit of training five days a week, including double sessions on some days. If the athlete trains hard, has the added ability to pay attention to detail and performs all the best practices required by an NFL player, then they will see great results. These results will manifest into a lucrative and successful career for the athlete, a condition which is life changing.

Bad habits tend to lead to failure and frustration within a person. Drugs are a huge problem in American sports, and indeed throughout the entire globe. A number of athletes’ promising careers have been destroyed by the use of drugs. Whether they develop a habit of using performance-enhancing substances or things like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, the result is the same. There is often a misconception that to change a habit, one must focus on the result. In actuality, this is not true. To change bad habits to good ones , a person needs to alter the behavior that precedes the outcome. For instance, a high-school student who has not been doing well academically will have to adopt positive study habits in order to pass the American College Test (ACT). The test score obtained is a result of the learning habits that precede it. The bank balance in someone’s account is a true reflection of their spending habits . In this case, whether one adopts frugal spending or frivolous spending will determine the figure in the bank account. It is important to modify bad habits and learn new ones, and the starting point is to focus on what you want to change. This decision requires an individual to realize the benefits of making the change. You need to take some time to reflect on why you need to change your habits. To begin the process of changing from bad to good habits, listing the bad habits and researching new gimmicks that can be used to replace them will be a very bold move. If we can change our habits from bad ones to good ones, then we will be able to take full control of our lives.

Chapter 1:

All About Habits

What Are Habits?

Human beings and animals have habits. This is normal and there is nothing wrong with us having certain routine practices or actions that we subconsciously engage in. Some of these habits are helpful, while others are retrogressive in nature and tend to push us towards lower levels of organization. What are habits? the reader may ask. The word ‘habitis’ is a combination of the Latin words habere, which means have, consist of, and habitus, which refers to condition, or state of being. Habits are a collection of practices acquired over time and play an important part in our lives and psyches. A more technical definition of habits is to describe them as actions that are sprung automatically when responding to contextual cues that have been associated with their performance. You can imagine the habit of washing your hands after using the toilet. The action is the washing of the hands, and the contextual cue is the use of the toilet. Another example would be the application of a seat belt when you get into your car. Fastening your seat belt is the action, while seating in the car is the contextual cue.

A distinct characteristic of habits is that they are repetitive, stable in nature, and represent the brain’s ability to enhance its efficiency. Habits simplify our lives, enabling us to avoid thinking about every small action that we need to engage ourselves in. The brain is a very complex organ in the body, and as it processes daily actions, it converts them into habits. We are then able to perform these actions in ‘autopilot’ mode, enabling us to give very little thought to the process of carrying out these functions. This complex cognitive function of the brain will allow it to save capacity for future challenges.

The process of forming a habit involves three main components, which are a result of a psychological pattern called a habit loop. The three parts are: (a) The context cue, (b) behavioral repetition, also known as a routine, and (c) the reward. The context cue is an action that is responsible for triggering a behavior. An event, prior action, location, or anything that triggers habitual behavior is considered a cue. The cue is responsible for associating one’s mind with an event or behavior, and this automatically springs a habit into action. A routine is the act of displaying a habit and it involves repetitive actions. The last stage of habit formation is the reward. This is the benefit that is linked to a behavior, such as a positive feeling.

Habits can best be described as actions that have become second nature to our existence. By continuously repeating certain processes, we do not need to think about them first in order to perform them. I am going to illustrate to the reader, through practical examples, how our minds have been