Good Habits: Create Powerful Habits and Destroy Weak Habits With 5 Simple Steps!

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle

Habits are the most critical aspect of developing a successful life.

This would seem to imply, then, that managing and implementing good habits is an important habit of its own. However, how does one know if a habit is good or bad when the future is uncertain?

The answer to this question is that, realistically, we cannot predict the future. We can, however, understand human growth.

When we repeatedly perform any task, our mental and muscular networks begin to work in a way that supplements these tasks.

In other words, when we behave consistently, we adapt to that behavior. Our bodies naturally develop a predisposition to these behaviors. This is exactly why the Aristotle quote above is so important to internalize.

It is not a single behavior that determines the course of our lives, but rather, the relationship that each habit has with our other habits.

There are common habits that hundreds of thousands or more people engage in everyday that have been proven, over time, to significantly reduce quality of life after repeated long-term use.

Habits such as alcoholism, smoking cigarettes, self-injury and even excessive nose-picking can cause massive detrimental effects over the long term. However, in terms of success, the little habits are equally important.

A person that brushes their teeth 3 times per day will have an obvious health advantage over someone that constantly eats processed sugar and never brushes their teeth.

How, then, do we eradicate the disease of bad habits? Below are the 5 condensed steps that can transform the lives of the readers that choose to implement them.

Step 1: Become Aware of a Habit – Decide Whether or not it is a Great Habit

The first step is often one of the most difficult to deal with effectively. With time, the ability to become aware of habits will naturally increase as with any other skill that is continuously exercised.

Habits occur all the time. Ask these questions to determine if something is being done habitually:

• What am I doing right now?
• Is what I’m doing a habit? Did I do it yesterday or the day before that?
• Is this causing a meaningful and positive impact on my life, or is it reducing my healthy lifespan or all of these?
• If I could change this habit right now, would I?

Step 2: Throw a Wrench in the Habit

An incredible way to overcome habits that is documented in the book “Awaken the Giant Within” by Tony Robbins is to do something so bizarre, embarrassing or destructive during a behavioral habit that it effectively stops the brain from continuing.

This in itself creates a new habit within the habit. For example, if you are an alcoholic, try going out into public before you take the drink and yell out loud “I am an alcoholic and I’m going to go have a drink!

Don’t try and stop me because I’m very very stupid!” If the public backlash is negativity, the mind will begin to negatively associate the behavior and the alcoholic will have an increased sense of negativity before they drink.

By making habit-destruction a habit of itself, one can gain a very powerful weapon against poor habits.

Step 3: Begin a Positive Habit Immediately After the Wrench has Been Thrown

The next step in removing a bad habit is to turn the increased negativity into a positive opportunity.

This shift in momentum will essentially turn “lead to gold,” as it were, by using the negative experiences in a person’s life to create powerful new positive experiences.

However, this must be done immediately or the effect will be diminished. Remember that it may take a while to replace bad habits – especially if they’ve been cultivated over years or decades.

Step 4: Reinforce the New Habit, Whittle Down the Old Habit.

This step is the “maintenance” step of the system. A habit gains momentum the more that it is repeated, meaning the more that a good habit is supplemented, the more that the habit of supplementing it becomes a new habit of itself.

If one were to have the positive personality trait of supplementing all of their habits, they would sharpen that skill over time naturally – just like any other habit. It may even feel like they’re “not even trying,” because the process is that natural.

Likewise, eroding bad habits is a habit of itself. The secret to habits, then, is habits themselves. A habit must be countered with a different habit. These take time and repetition to develop, so the ideal time to start is right now.

Step 5: Commit to Habitual Development and Improvement

The next step is to commit to these steps. A commitment is not something that is said, it is something that is done.

The only way to improve habits is with a third and final layer of habits:

Supplement the habit of supplementing good habits, and supplement the habit of eroding the habits of negative habits. This may be difficult to wrap the mind around at first, but that’s OK.