The Important Steps For Replacing Bad Habits with Good Ones

You are your habits

My daughter is extremely excited these days. Her milk teeth are falling out. She’s lost two so far and stronger ones have started growing in their place. Every time another starts shaking, she comes to us full of excitement.

She knows that means she’s growing.

Getting rid of the old to replace the new.

And of course, getting some pocket change from the tooth fairy in the process.

Imagine if we were still using our milk teeth. We’d have difficulty eating. We’d look pretty weird. Those teeth served their purpose. They fell out and stronger, permanent ones took their place.

Some of our habits are the same. Useful for a time, but need to fall out for stronger, better goals to take their place. The difference is we have a little more control over habits than we do teeth. So we hold onto them. Even when we try new habits, they have to force their way past the old ones. These new habits end up falling on the wayside because we’re so comfy with our old ones.

New habits are the only way to get lasting change in our lives. New habits are necessary if our doctor says we need to lose 15 pounds. We need new habits to start saving for the downpayment on a house. If we’re underperforming at work and at risk of being fired, we need to make habit changes.

It’s impossible to achieve these things with old behaviors and old information. Like my milk teeth analogy, there’s only room for one. If we implement one while still entertaining the other, we end up losing time and digging a deeper hole than necessary.

So how can you replace the old with the new?

I was once trying to start a journaling habit and it just was not sticking. So I asked a coach who happened to write an article at the time about journaling. His suggestion? Link your new habit to a current good habit. So I started writing a few lines after I brushed my teeth. That month, I wrote more in my journals than the rest of the year combined. Your good habit needs some good company. Find a…

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