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Whether it be nail-biting, incessant pen-clicking or checking your cell phone for messages every two minutes, we all have our bad habits.
Don’t think you have any? Ask a close friend, family member or colleague and chances are, you have one that you’re not even aware of! The good news is, you are not stuck with your bad habit for life. With a little bit of perseverance, you can break the pattern for good.
It’s all in your mind First you need to mentally commit to kicking the habit. If you’re not serious about stopping, you won’t succeed. Make a list of all the negative aspects of your habit. For example, when you bite your nails you are putting nasty bacteria in your mouth, and ruining your chances of having long, elegant nails. Visualise the benefits of breaking the habit by imagining yourself once you have succeeded. If you were trying to quit smoking, you might picture yourself feeling healthier, with whiter teeth, and a wad of spare cash in your pocket.
What lurks beneath the surface? Now that you are committed to ditching your bad habit, you need to discover the situations where you are most likely to turn to your habit. Make a conscious effort to identify and take note of where your habit emerges. Do you repetitively click your pen when you are preparing for a work presentation but not while chatting with a workmate? Do you find yourself pulling out strands of your hair when waiting for an important meeting with your boss, but not when you are watching TV in the evening? Stress and nervousness are the main triggers behind many habits. Other factors like boredom, loneliness or unhappiness could also underlie your habit.
Make changes Once you have identified the types of situations that tend to trigger your habit, you need to think about how you can avoid or change those situations. If stress is the trigger, maybe you need to look at improving your time management skills, or delegating some of your responsibilities. If it’s boredom, you need to think about taking up a new hobby or calling a friend to catch up. By avoiding the main trigger of your habit, you will find it easier to break the pattern. When you find yourself doing (or wanting to do) your bad habit, stop immediately. Remove yourself from the situation for a few moments, either physically or mentally, and the urge should die down.
Substitute a good habit for a bad habit It’s unlikely that you will be able to completely eliminate your trigger from your life. Also, there is a tendency for a new habit to creep in and replace your old habit when you are exposed to your trigger. One way to avoid this happening is to consciously replace your bad habit with a good one. When you find yourself chewing your nails, chew some sugar-free gum instead. It’s good for your teeth and you will always have fresh breath. If you constantly check your emails, find out how to set up a filter so that your computer will alert you to urgent emails and divert non-urgent ones into a folder that you can look through later when you have time. You will be surprised at how much more productive you are!
Warning: is your habit turning into an obsession? Would you feel anxious and uneasy if you couldn’t perform your habit? Is the frequency of your habit increasing? It could be turning into an obsession, with nasty consequences for you. If you think that you or a friend might be developing an obsession, seek help from a doctor or counsellor.
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your cell phone for messages every two minutes, we all have our bad habits. 
It’s all in your mind
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