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Break Free from Unhealthy Habits

LIKE BUILDING A HOUSE, SUSTAINED BEHAVIOR CHANGE TAKES WORK, not willpower. Because behavior is so ingrained, changing habits involves analysis, planning, goal-setting, and desire.

A plan gives you the security to make the right “microchoices” every day, so you don’t have to rely on discipline.

The following suggestions for creating a behavior-change plan increase your chance of adopting healthier habits for the long term.

PIN POINT NEGATIVE PATTERNS

To change habits, be conscious of how you act. You can’t change what you’re not aware of or what you’re not willing to accept.

If you think you need to change but you’re not sure how, ask yourself: How am I contributing to my own misery, setbacks, or lack of achievement?

BEWARE OF THE BLAME GAME

The blame game occurs when you blame yourself, others, or your background for your circumstances, or make justifications, such as, “I’m genetically predisposed to being overweight.”

Although excuses may sound legitimate, they’re not. They’re methods of avoiding being proactive. To change a behavior, you have to recognize you’re personally responsible for every choice you make.

MAKE A PLAN

The key is to write down your goals, then outline the steps you need to take to reach them. Having a detailed plan helps you create an automated response for yourself so you’ll routinely make the right choice.

If you want to lose weight, for example, take a few minutes to clearly define a realistic and measurable goal. Rather than trying to trim down to your high-school weight, set a modest goal of losing 10 percent of your body weight in six months.

To lose a pound a week, create a 500- calorie-a-day deficit by burning 250 calories by walking for 45 minutes and cutting 250 calories from your daily diet.

USE AFFIRMATIONS

To further bolster your confidence to make healthier choices, use affirmations—strong positive statements that assume something you desire is, in fact, already true.

If you’re striving to make headway on the job, your affirmation could be, “I’m a competent person capable of succeeding.”

Repeating the right affirmation will eventually lead to a change in the way you perceive yourself, and it’s among the many ways you can leave unhealthy habits behind.

How Much do You Know About Making Behavior Changes?

1. Emotions often drive negative behaviors.
   True False
2. Coming up with a positive behavior to substitute for a negative one rarely works.
   True False
3. If you relapse on your plan to change, you might as well give up.
   True False
4. Timing is important when committing to a behavior-change plan.
   True False

ANSWERS
1. True—and dealing directly with whatever those emotions are—such as fear of failure or anxiety—can make behavior change less difficult. 2. False—it’s often effective. For example, smokers who are trying to quit often substitute chewing gum or hard candy for cigarettes. 3. False—everybody slips ups. The key to success is to return to your behavior plan the very next day. 4. True—the ideal time to make a habit change is when your motivation is high and your life is relatively predictable.