5 Bad Habits to Break to Live a Happier Life

Breaking bad habits can be more difficult than creating or building new ones. Why? Because even though they have negative effects on us in the long or short term, we find pleasure in doing them.

For example, if you are someone who bites your nails, you most likely do it to relieve stress or anxiety, and you know that you are inviting germs and bacteria into your body, but the pleasure of doing that activity will prompt you to put your hands in your mouth again.

This happens because humans are creatures of habit. No human can function effectively without some form of habit. And the truth is that you can’t totally kill a negative habit, but you can break its hold over your life.

If you truly want to live a happier and more fulfilling life, you must unlearn some habits and build new ones.

In this article, we will explore five bad habits to break to live a happier and more fulfilling life. But before then, we should understand habits and how they are formed.

What are Habits?

Habits are actions that are done regularly, mostly unconsciously. They are formed through repetition. It’s a person’s usual way of behaving. It could be how they walk, talk, act, eat, think, etc.

Habit Formation

The creation of habits is one of the ways the brain conserves energy and reduces cortisol. If your brain haxd to spend energy on everything, it would probably be obsolete now.

I doubt if you usually think about how to brush your teeth, take a bath, or even walk. You just do them because they have become a part of you. Most of the time, you do them absent-mindedly.

So, how do habits, whether good or bad, form?

According to the author of The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg, habits are formed by three things:

• Trigger.

• Routine.

• Reward.

Trigger: A trigger or cue prompts you to create a habit. It could be an internal or external trigger.

For an internal trigger, your sadness could trigger you to take alcohol; it could be a coping mechanism to run away from your sorrows. So, your sadness triggers you or gives you the cue to drink alcohol.

You can also have an external trigger like the cock’s crow, an alarm, getting to work, getting back from work, sitting on your balcony, and so on.

N.B.: A simple yet powerful hack for breaking bad habits is to remove the trigger. If you can remove the trigger of seeing a cigarette or perceiving a cigarette, the smoker might refrain from smoking and break that habit in the long run.

Routine: This is the act of engaging in the task itself. Anything you do repeatedly becomes a routine, which transforms into a habit.

Reward: The reward could also be internal or external. The truth is that many negative habits release good hormones like dopamine in your brain as much as positive habits do.

For example, my conversations with addicted smokers revealed that when they smoke, they feel like heaven on earth. It’s a sensation and feeling they can’t go off.

Let’s bring the illustration closer to you. I’m certain you have struggled with procrastination at one time or another. How do you feel when you procrastinate?

Even though you know in the back of your mind that not doing it now will haunt you, at that moment, you gain pleasure from postponing that activity (even if it is just for a limited time).

External rewards are tangible rewards you get for indulging in a behavior. For example, for someone who steals, the reward is the premium life he enjoys with the money he stole.

So, he will most likely indulge in it again because he finds pleasure in doing it.

In a positive light, tangible rewards are rewards you give yourself because you have developed good habits.

For example, you could treat yourself to a good restaurant when you finish a project without procrastinating and before the deadline.

Why Should You Break Bad Habits?

Before diving into the 5 bad habits you should break to live a happier life, let’s look at why you should break these habits.

Jerry Craig once said, “A change in bad habits leads to a change in life.”

Your life is a summation of your habits. Habits make up your life. If you engage in negative habits, they will affect the outcome of your life. But if you engage in positive habits, they will also affect the outcome of your life.

So, you have to ask yourself what you truly want. Do you want to change your life, or vice versa?

5 Bad Habits to Break to Live a Happier Life

1. Procrastination:

We all know what this particular habit is, right? It has stopped inventions that could have changed the world. It has killed dreams and prevented people from going after their dreams.

It cost people their jobs and contracts. It has stopped people from living up to their highest potential.

It has stopped people from feeling fulfilled. Being friends with procrastination has never yielded good fruit, nor will it.

Procrastination is the art of delaying or postponing something until the last minute or even past the deadline, despite knowing that there are negative consequences for doing so.

If you currently procrastinate, I’ll give you three tested principles that have helped people overcome procrastination.

Break big tasks into smaller ones:

Most times, you feel like procrastinating because the task seems too big and your brain is stressed out at the mention of it.

Your brain loves to be comfortable, and this is why many people find it hard to step out of their comfort zone. You can help yourself by breaking it into smaller chunks and tasks.

Instead of facing the project head-on, you can break it down into milestones. When you are done with a milestone, move on to the next one.

Aside from the fact that this is a systematic way of overcoming procrastination, it also gives you small wins.

These small wins release some feel-good hormones in your brain, and they fuel your motivation to keep going.

The 5-second rule:

The 5-second rule is a rule that helps you start the work you have been avoiding. For example, let’s say you have broken down the task but still don’t know how to get started.

The 5-second model teaches that you can count 5-1. That is, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then you start. I know it sounds simple, but it works.

It’s just conditioning your mind that after counting, you will start whether you feel like it or not.

It’s just like athletes preparing for the Olympics. The late-night training, exercising, and dieting will pay off in the field, not on the training ground.

As they hear “On your mark” and “Set,” they get set. But they only take off when the shooting pistol is fired. Not taking off could endanger their winning chances, especially in a 100-meter race.

In the same way, breaking down your tasks is the preparation stage. Then, the 5-second rule pushes you to get started.

2. Perfectionism:

This is another habit that needs to go. While some people consider this attribute an advantage, more often than not, it comes back to haunt them.

Most of the time, they are never satisfied with what they do. They always want everything to be perfect and without flaws.

While that can be good because they pay attention to details, they often forget that there is nothing perfect. It can be excellent, good enough, or top-notch, but it can’t be perfect.

Weirdly, perfectionism shares a relationship with procrastination. Not proposing to your girlfriend because you want everything to be perfect could be a sign of procrastination.

Also, starting a project at the last minute because you feel you don’t have all the necessary materials is an act of procrastination.

We should take a cue from artists. Most times, when they start drawing, their artwork doesn’t even look anywhere near the result.

But they are often patient with themselves and wait till they are done. But if they keep erasing their brushstrokes, hoping they will draw the perfect stroke on the canvas, maybe there will only be a few artists today.

So, the point is to be self-aware and mindful of yourself. When you find yourself clinging to perfection, you should take action regardless.

3. Negative self-talk:

Words are powerful. More than what people tell you, the conversations you have with yourself and the stories you tell yourself can make or mar your life.

The results of some people’s lives are self-fulfilling prophecies. They are simply experiencing the narratives they have been telling themselves.

This has probably seeped into your subconscious (obviously, that’s why it is a habit), and you don’t even know when you tell yourself these words: “I can’t do it,” “I am not handsome,” “I’m not beautiful,” “This is way too big for me,” etc.

So, what do you do? You replace what you have learned and turn them into positive ones.

As I mentioned earlier, habits are built through repetition. If you learn negative habits through repetition, you can also learn positive habits through repetition.

So, tell yourself, “I’m handsome,” “I deserve it,” “I can handle this project,” “I am productive today,” and so on. Keep saying it and don’t stop until it becomes a part of you.

4. Seeking Validation:

Humans are social beings. We love to be seen, listened to, understood, acknowledged, and recognized.

So, it’s normal for you to seek approval from people, whether consciously or unconsciously, to do certain things.

However, you need to be able to think for yourself without the filter of other people. You need to trust your judgments and decisions.

Sometimes, you are too concerned about what people will say and forget to do things that make you happy.

If you truly want to be happy, you have to ignore what people say and do what is right.

Another perspective on this is the spotlight effect. Have you ever walked on the street and thought all eyes were on you?

However, on a closer look, you discovered they weren’t paying attention to you. And if they did, they didn’t care.

The same thing applies to your goals, plans, and life in general. Decide to stop focusing on what people say because they don’t care as much as you think.

Instead, focus on what you ought to do. As the saying goes, “What you focus on expands.”

5. Comparing yourself with others:

Truthfully, you can’t really do without comparing yourself to people because your brain processes a lot of information based on comparison.

For example, if you hear that someone achieved something at age 28, you will most likely compare yourself to that person, especially when you are within that age range.

So, if you can’t totally eradicate it, what can you do? First, understand that your journey is unique and different from other people’s.

We are not heading to the same destination. Likewise, we are not all riding the same vehicle, so why would you be comparing yourself with other people?

Second, instead of comparing yourself to them and digging a well of jealousy in you, why not learn from them and let their processes inspire you? That’s healthy comparison and competition.

Their results compel you to do more for yourself and be happier. It helps you know that there is more to what you do and inspires you to dream bigger. So, this is simply a reframing of perspective.

Conclusion

These 5 things are not the only ones that will guarantee you a happy life.

But one thing is for sure: if you break these five habits and replace them as suggested in this article, you’ll live a happier and fulfilled life.

Don’t forget to share this article with your friends and family on social media.