on
Recent Post
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
 |
There are bad habits that everyone knows they should avoid. Bad habits can sometimes overcome you whether they are merely annoying and unavoidable (biting your nails used to be a big one for me) or blatantly repulsive (picking your nose in public is nasty). Its simple to let bad habits (like procrastinating) develop when youre a college student but Ive overcome them by just substituting better habits. Before you examine my new habits I would like to share some thoughts with you.
Practice makes a habit. Develop a habit if you want to become proficient at something. For instance I write a post whenever I have an intriguing idea that I want to share. Its been nearly a year since I started doing this every week.
You feel BAD when you have bad habits. If you are unsure of what constitutes a bad habit consider your behavior from this angle: bad habits make you feel bad when you engage in them. Another example is procrastination which always makes me feel horrible because I know its wrong. Whats the point of doing something you dont enjoy?
It takes more than just word-of-mouth to change behavior. For change to happen you must truly want to change. It doesnt change who you are to write things down and make empty promises. It requires bravery practice and most importantly WILLPOWER.
Let me start by sharing my list. Abandoned: Observing television. As an alternative I watch anything I want on the internet. Im done sifting through channels in hopes of finding something of interest.
Im grateful for Hulu and YouTube. Finished: Go to the local news. Instead Ill read articles that particularly catch my attention while spending a few minutes scanning the headlines of the world news. Multitasking has been abandoned (there is some validity to the stereotype that women are better multitaskers).
Instead I find that its simpler to focus on one task at a time. I simply no longer have the capacity to focus on multiple tasks at once. Ultimately it seems like I havent accomplished anything. Give up: Spending hours every day on Facebook.
Instead I spend maybe half an hour every few hours on Twitter and other short social media platforms. On Twitter people share links and engage in conversation which helps me learn a lot more than on Facebook where users only view static profiles. Im done hanging out with people who dont deserve my time. What I do instead is meet people who are positive influences in my life encourage me to take action and make me feel good about myself.
A quick tip: Keep in mind that you have valuable time. Avoid wasting it. Relentlessly chatting on the phone for nearly an hour. What I do in its place: While talking on the phone is acceptable I dont particularly enjoy it.
You might as well go see the person on the other end of the phone and have a face-to-face conversation if the phone conversation lasts more than an hour. If I havent heard from someone for a long time I usually stick to brief online messages but lengthy phone conversations. Finished biting my fingernails. My alternative is to store my nail clipper in more accessible locations such as my side drawer.
I can then simply clip them as needed. Im going to bed at noon. Rather I get up early every morning feeling incredibly energized and prepared to take on the day. There is truth to the statement that one feels productive in the morning.
You dont feel like youve wasted a whole day and you feel much more in control. given up: only eating junk food and drinking juice every day. What I do instead: If you think about it switching to drinking only water every day isnt that hard. You only need to stop making junk food and juice available.
Although it is understandably much more difficult to change your eating habits it all really begins with what you purchase. A habit of spending hours each day playing video games has been abandoned. What I do instead: I was a huge video game fan once. I would dedicate hours each day to games that I would finish and then play again and again in order to experience the same sense of fulfillment and enjoyment.
Naturally I would eventually grow bored and quit playing some games for years as the law of diminishing returns suggests. I now play for about seven hours a day once every few months or for two hours every day for three days before taking a break for a few weeks. These are but a handful of the benefits Ive experienced from breaking my bad habits. I dont believe that my habits are in charge of me.
I think Im living my life the way I WANT to. Have you changed any bad habits recently? If so tell me about it.
Comments
Post a Comment