Habits run our lives. Much of what you do is based on a habit you’ve developed at some point in your life. In fact, according to a 2006 study conducted at Duke University, over 40 percent of what you do on a daily basis is habitual. In other words, you often complete the same actions, in the same place and at the same time.
Many habits are helpful, like eating healthy, exercising regularly and giving that “second glance” before switching lanes in a car.
Other habits are harmful, like smoking, drinking excessively or spending too much time on the Internet.
You might consider these routines to be nothing more than small hindrances, but some can have a long-term, debilitating impact on your life.
Since you’re reading this book, I’ll assume you want to break a specific bad habit. Odds are, you’ve tried in the past and maybe you were successful for a few days. Then something unexpected came up where you slipped for a day or two. One mistake snowballs into a series of setbacks. Eventually you give up on the idea of making a habit change simply because it’s too difficult to do.
The interesting thing?
We’ve all experienced this pattern at some point in our lives.
You want to change a behavior, yet you keep experiencing failure. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy or weak-willed. It means you didn’t have the right tools for making a lasting habit change.
What you need (and what the following book provides) is a strategy for identifying your worst habits and learning how to overcome them. I call it Bad Habits No More: 25 Steps to Break ANY Bad Habit.
This book wasn’t written to lecture you about your mistakes. Nor is it designed to fill your head with rah-rah motivational nonsense where I tell you to simply “try a little harder.” Instead, we’ll talk about how to understand the whys behind a negative behavior and how to build positive habits to help you overcome it.
As you’ll see, I don’t believe in the idea of “white-knuckling” your way through a behavior change. This strategy rarely works because it doesn’t teach you how to cope with temptations and moments of weakness.
Another thing you’ll discover is the underlying psychology behind your bad habit. You perform every action for a specific reason, but rarely do you take the time to fully understand your behavior. With this book, you’ll learn how to explore your feelings while engaged in a bad habit and then create an action plan for when temptations pile up.
Bad Habits No More is designed to be an action plan. I’ve eliminated all unnecessary fluff. I’ve kept each step short and to the point. And I’ve included a case study (from my life) that best illustrates the logic behind each piece of advice. The goal here is to provide you with a book that can be read in under an hour and then immediately applied to your life.
Who Am I?
My name is Steve “S.J.” Scott. I run the blog Develop Good Habits. The purpose of my content is to show how continuous habit development can lead to a better life. Instead of lecturing you, I provide simple strategies that are easy to use no matter how busy you are. It’s been my experience that the best way to make a lasting change is to develop one quality habit at a time.
Like you, I’ve struggled with certain bad habits. While I’ve never had to deal with a major addiction (like smoking, drinking or gambling), I definitely have my fair share of routines that don’t add value to my life (like snacking on junk food or engaging in pointless activities).
Eventually, I realized that all bad habits share a similar pattern. The trick, I found, is to understand this pattern and know how to take a series of actions to eliminate negative behaviors.
Bad Habits No More is the result of my experiences. It’s a collection of different lessons I’ve learned about overcoming bad habits.
We’ll start with a brief discourse on the dangers of relying on willpower. Then we’ll move into the 25 steps for overcoming a bad habit. Each step includes a short case study to show you how I applied this information to break a small (but time-consuming) habit in June 2014.
This book covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time, so let’s dive in by talking about a common myth many people have about habit development.