We all have bad habits to cut from our life but getting rid of them feels like a mountain to climb. Today, I am inviting you to get the ball rolling by starting to break one habit without suffering.
See, we often approach a bad habit to break as a whole, a dragon to slay, when we could break down this habit into tiny parts. Let's say you decided to give up sugar. You will dive into suffering pretty instantly because many things contain sugar so you are facing a very long list of food (including some delicious ones) you 'CAN'T' have. To this psychological suffering (torture even), you are going to add physical suffering as you might get withdrawal symptoms such as
headaches, dizzy spells, etc. No one can sustain this suffering for long.
What if you broke 'eating sugar' into smaller parts? There would be 'eating sweets', 'eating chocolate bars', 'eating cookies', 'eating biscuits', 'eating cake', 'putting sugar in hot beverages' etc, you get the idea.
Next, you choose one item you rarely eat like doughnuts. Today, is the day you no longer eat it, but rather than say, "I 'can't' eat doughnuts , you say, "I 'don't' eat doughnuts", just like you would say "I don't drive above the speed limit. It's a rule you live by.
Here is a rule I like sharing. I like food and I would hate to diet, so I have a few rules I live by to ensure I never have to give up anything. One that has served me incredibly well is, "I don't eat between meals". Trust me, it wasn't always easy when I was a teacher and would find biscuits or cakes in the staffroom at recess/playtime because it was someone's birthday or the management felt we needed encouragement, someone was leaving or someone made cakes just because they love
baking. I would say, "Thank you. I don't eat between meals". At times, so I didn't offend someone, I would wrap a bit of the treat and have it at lunch time because I like finishing my meal on a sweet note anyway.
Once you declare the rules you live by, you have to live by them because it feels like you have to live up to this new reputation as someone who doesn't ...
Once you feel comfortable with your first rule, you can move on to the second one. Over time, you will have conquered the bad habit, steadily and without much suffering. By the way, some rules could be in place for a while only. At some point, I had a bit of weight that I wanted to lose, so I established a new, temporary rule, 'I don't eat sweet treats after 4:00 pm'. It worked well and I drop the rule when I was happy.
Apply this method for any habit. Make your own rules and have fun with them as well. If you want to reduce the amount of time you spend on social media, maybe your first rule might be, "I won't check social media before I am showered and dressed."
What is the bad habit you have been putting off giving up? Now is the time!
I have made a tracking sheet for you to tick every day (or colour or put a sticker in) that you have lived by your new rule. There are 100 boxes because when you get to the end of it, this new rule will be second nature to you. If you couldn't do it one day, just put a cross in the box and resume the next day. NO PROBLEM!
