Habits dictate your behavior

Repeated action leads to the formation of habits. These become our state of mind and dictate our responses. Your behavior is a result of conditioning, to which you are exposed consciously or unconsciously.  It is determined by the:

·                    Kind of company you keep

·                    Books read by you

·                    Movies and TV programs you watch

·                    Kind of music you listen to

Recognize your bad habits

Often people recognize their bad habits but they make little effort to change. This is often due to:

·                    Lack of desire

·                    Lack of discipline

·                    Lack of faith in themselves

·                    Lack of awareness for the need to change

These factors prevent us from getting rid of our negative habits. We often excuse ourselves by imagining ourselves to be too busy or thinking that changing ourselves will not make any difference.

You can change your behavior by modifying your attitude. The first step would be to list your negative habits and make another list of all the positive habits you want to develop. The next logical step is to work try to substitute your bad habits with good ones.

A Guide to Changing Habits:

Six guidelines should be followed to overcome unwanted personal and social habits.

Identify the habit you want to change:

·                    Pinpoint the undesired habit

·                    See how often it occurs before you plan to change it.

·                    Study how much you've changed

Reason out why you want to change the habit:

·                    Write a statement of intention e.g. do not say, “I will study harder”. Instead say, “I will study for two hours”.

·                    Mention your intention to other people, they will help you change.

·                    Set your intention to the near future e.g. “I will not drink at the party next week”.

·                    Count you series of successes.

Examine the situation:

·                    Control the stimuli that sets off the undesired behavior

·                    Prevent the unwanted response

·                    Inflict self-punishment at the unwanted behavior

·                    Shape up the desired behavior

Search for the immediate consequence of the act:

·                    You may have to change other people's behavior

·                    Avoid the company of people with the undesired behavior

·                    Change the situation so that the unwanted consequence does not occur

Establish the desired habit

·                    Look for friends who encourage your progress

·                    Reward yourself when successful

·                    Monitor yourself

·                    Make the rewards more difficult to earn.

The fact that you are doing something for your own good can serve as a very powerful reward for yourself.