This is Why It’s Hard to Form Good Habits
By: Toni Koraza
Tags: Personal Development, Habits, Advice, Life, Personal Growth

This is Why It’s Hard to Form Good Habits

Photo by Toni Koraza on Unsplash

You can form a positive habit in 66 days, according to a study from a European Journal of Social Psychology.

Individuals may take longer, while some may never form a healthy habit. Your actions come from the subconscious mind, and it’s philosophically questionable if you have any control over your habits. But sticking to popular science, you can form a new habit if you try hard and iterate your day-to-day behavior.

Your bad and good habits come from repetition and the environment.

Forming a good habit is not impossible when you have the right support system. Imagine if reading books is as socially cool as alcohol or cigarettes? Would people read more? Would you read more?

The world has a powerful support system for toxic behaviors, which easily builds into destructive habits.

You are your worst enemy. Nothing can hurt you as much as you can hurt yourself, and forming bad habits proves that it’s easy to fall into this trap.

Most people soon become aware of how their destructive ways create personal problems for themselves and people close to them. Addicts steal and lie just to fulfill their needs. Cheaters lie to cover their tracks and seek further excitement that leads to wrecked homes and families.

Smokers would light up a cigarette at the lung cancer ward.

Photo by Michael Kilcoyne on Unsplash

Do you have to live in a spiral of self-destruction?

The answer is no. You don’t.

You can escape the rat race of bad habits and questionable decisions. The strategy to crack down on bad habits is simple, but its practice is beyond complex. Most people fail soon, feel bad, and then give up to avoid the feeling of inadequacy.

Giving up on your decision is a power move against yourself.

Power moves are instant gratification that can only lead to more bad habits and overall destruction. Conversely, positive habits are a long game. Change comes from repetition, and you have to iterate something every day until you’re ready to change.

Religiously, meticulously, passionately, and crazily you’d have to practice what you want to see in the mirror every day, with no days off.

Do you know why?

Because you’ve been practicing the bad habits the same way. Smoking? Hell yes. Alcohol? Hell yeah, with some more. Porn? Hell yes, that too. Pornhub’s stats have to come from someone ridiculously watching porn.

You’ve been practicing your bad habits regularly, and that’s an obvious pattern. You’ve conditioned yourself to like all the bad habits, and your body rewards you with the constant urge to do some more of it.

Practice makes perfect goes both ways.

Concept loosely borrowed from “How Habits Work” by Charles Duhigg

Break the cycle and commit to building the person you’d love to see in the mirror every morning.

Building healthy habits is easier said than done, but it’s possible.

You have the power, even though it doesn't feel that way all the time. Focus on repeating one good habit you're trying to form every single day. Exercise in the morning, study a new language, read books, practice gold swings and fishing throws.

Avoid triggers that spiral your down a destructive path and build on triggers that invoke the habit you’re trying to form.

“It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” ―Benjamin Franklin

Your body will start craving the healthy habit after a few months of continual repetition.

Lose weight, read more, create more, and live a happier life.

Get a gym membership, and exercise every day. You may feel bad at first, but after two months, you start craving weights, running, and physical activity.

I read every morning and have a kindle next to my bed. Reading is a cool habit, and I enjoy it more than ever before. Today, I crave my 20min reading sessions before I get up and punch the day in the face.

Otherwise, I’d feel unaccomplished and drawn to alone time.

I stopped smoking cigarettes after 10 years of being an addict. Smoking was torture, but giving up on it was hell. I’m still craving the nicotine and the feeling of holding a cigarette, and still get triggered to light up a cigarette when I see someone enjoying one.

I change environments when I feel myself craving bad habits.

Practice makes perfect, and sometimes it pays to stay away from the devil.

I don’t drink anymore, and that habit was easier to drop with COVID restrictions.