How to Crush Bad Habits Away: Lessons from an Author, a Dog Whisperer and a Philosopher

If I were to ask you “What is the unhealthiest habit you would want to get rid of right at this very moment?”, what would it be? For a lot of you, your answer may not be just one specific habit. The list could be long – from smoking, food bingeing, procrastination, being overly critical or pessimistic to having lack of focus or a short temper. And overcoming even just one of these bad habits is surely one tough challenge, breaking it only to realize you jumped right back again the next day.

Bad Habits are Hard to Break

Breaking bad habits is a cycle of hit and misses for a lot of people. How many times have you heard that old habits are hard to break, or you can never teach old dogs new tricks? That is because destructive habits are very much about living within your comfort zone. And because you are essentially living in a rotten bubble, it is limiting, which can hinder you from achieving excellence and making successful magic to happen.

You need to crawl out of it to become and come out triumphant in any endeavor and aspect of your life. Every bad habit acts like a string that connects to disappointments and failures. If you look at it, smoking and overeating equals to an unhealthy body, procrastination is a stumbling block to productivity and pessimism gets in the way of seeing the beauty in every thing you do. You get the drift? Bad habits will never result or foster brilliance that is within you.

Successful Habits from an Author

A lot of you have probably heard of Stephen Covey. He was a highly effective American educator, businessman and motivational speaker. But he is probably more known for authoring the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. The book has become a best-selling book even up to this day since it was first published in 1989. It has been used in a number of organizations and institutions in helping top management people and human resources in gearing them up for success. It has even spurred another book that teaches the 8th habit that transcends effective to greatness.

I especially find the first habit to be worth noting. It talks about being proactive. It highlights the very fact that life does not just happen, you make it happen. It is about taking responsibility and focusing on the Circle of Influence, which essentially are the things that you can take control over. And this certainly holds true about putting the focus on changing your destructive ways, which you yourself have realized are impeding you from achieving your potential.

I also found this really simplified chart that illustrates the habits of unsuccessful people compared to those who have achieved excellence and success. It shows the ideal traits any person would want to have. But here lies the question on how you can step up from your comfortable bad habits and to rise above transforming them to valuable habits.

But It is Not an Impossible Feat

Overcoming bad habits and cravings is not exactly an impossible feat. The very fact that you were able to change your old ways even just for a day shows that it is possible. It is a matter of maintaining that momentum.

It will be no surprise for me to say that NLP can help you change your bad habits. NLP, after all, is the art and science of human excellence. And part of that goal is to inculcate the influential and powerful habits that will foster achievement of goals and success. If we look back, NLP is about changing what does not work and replacing them with practical and creative ones, enriching your self-potential.

Changing Your Old Dog Ways

The adage “Old dogs can never be taught with new tricks.” is passé and is just a lazy excuse. Hey, just look at how famous “dog whisperer” Cesar Millan is able to change seemingly unchangeable ways of dogs to becoming the perfect furry companion. While this may seem like a weird analogy, but Millan is like NLP and how it can transform your old doggy ways that are your bad habits.

For quite a number of times, Millan has been talking about how the power of association can have a profound effect in understanding how dogs respond to an owner and in correcting common problems. This very idea is the very essence of one of the powerful techniques in NLP used to changing bad habits, which is Anchoring. Anchoring can be an efficient tool in helping you feel more comfortable with something that scares you. And in this case, jumping in the first step towards changing a bad habit. Associating a positive emotion to an effort like quitting smoking can be an effective motivation and helps convince your subconscious mind that by doing such is easy and effortless.

Positive Outcomes without the Bad Habits

Apart from the basic concept teaching in NLP that negative traits can be replaced with positive ones, one of the key presuppositions of NLP is that “Every behavior is a positive intention.”. Now while this may sound like it supports your bad behavior, hear me out first because it actually does otherwise. Seeing the positive intention of your bad habit allows you to open up your conscious awareness.

First is that it allows you to identify your bad and unwanted habit or behavior. From here, ask yourself what are the good things that can come from it. Just an example, procrastinating allows you not to make haste decisions and think things clearly through. But here lies the difference in doing things the NLP way. Take these positive outcomes or intentions and explore options to get to these without your bad behavior or habit. This takes commitment to do things differently and to always stay on track.

This exercise can be complemented with Anchoring or the other NLP techniques. Parts integration is one of those commonly used techniques that help quash bad habits effortlessly. This helps you to align your unconscious mind and values into more empowered and congruent actions. Then there is the Swish Pattern and Belief Change. These are just some of the many ways NLP can help you overcome bad habits instantly.

The Philosopher’s Lesson

Always keep in mind that good habits are as addictive as bad habits, but they are much more rewarding. I go back to what philosopher Aristotle once said that, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” And there is no better way to fuel excellence than boosting yourself with habits that are resourceful, positive and progressive.

To learn more how you can overcome you nasty habits, join us in one of our Jacky Lim NLP Sharing Sessions. This 2-hour intimate session will chime you in on the NLP techniques that can help transform you into a model of excellence with only the good habits that boost success in life. By attending this event, you also get to grab a free ebook copy on “Banish Bad Habits: How to Free Yourself From Bad Habits, Forever! ” All you need to do is fill-out our inquiry form or call us now to book the limited seat reserved just for you.