Habit is an acquired pattern of behavior that often occurs automatically. Some habits are good and some bad. It is often the bad ones that we should be aware of and try to resolve.
The inherent problem is that bad habits are part of our system and hence people are not even aware that they have a particular bad habit (unless it's a social bad habit like smoking or drinking).
Over the years your parents, spouse and people who care for you will always point your bad habits so that you improve. But what if you wanted to discover your bad habits yourself? This article will give you practical tips on how to discover and improve your bad habit.
So, how do you discover these bad habits within your system? How to you understand what is bad for you?
Following are the tips to discover bad habits
1. Ask your friends to help you
This is an easiest way to determine a list of your bad habits. Circulate a sheet of paper to your friends and ask them to anonymously write the bad habits or something that they think you should change. Also ask them why you should change or an instance when you did something wrong.
Review their notes and compile them into one list. This is an important step as it gives you one master list to work on. Be careful as you may want to first identify whether or not it genuinely is a problem or bad habit. You may also want to identify if some of the points provided was a one-off case. Strike off those habits that you feel is irrelevant.
At this stage you should have a good number of habits to work on and improve.
2. Make notes of an ideal person that you want to be
You need to give a lot of thought on this one. It could take days or weeks to come up with a definition of an ideal person that you desire to be. The easiest way is to relate yourself with some of the most successful people that you know of. Do a bit of research on them. Identify their strengths and habits. Ideally preparing a list of good habits from 2 - 3 good people would help you derive a list of 10 - 15 good habits that you should inculcate. These people could be your parents, relatives, friends, etc.
Set time for yourself and work on this list. Once you have finalized on a list of good habits that you want to develop; compare it with the list of habits that you already have and strike them out.
The remaining items on the list should serve as a guide to check if you do the opposite of what is mentioned in that remaining list. E.g. if the list contains a habit "Good Time Manager", check with yourself it you waste time.
4 Steps on how to improve your bad habits
1. Prioritize your list
With a ready to refer list in hand based on the tips mentioned above, you should prioritize the habits that you should improve first. E.g. if your list contains bad habits like, wasting time and bad eating habits; then improving on your time management skills should be taken up first and then improving bad eating habits. Though there are some bad habits that you could improve in parallels, but it is advisable that you improve one step at a time.
2. Schedule the plan for improvement
Set a timeline for improving a particular habit. Setting a timeline does not mean that you should give yourself a vague time like 1 month or 6 months. Give yourself a date to improve. Make a promise to yourself. If you think that something will take you 6 months to achieve; give yourself that much time and set a date.
3. Prepare and Carry a Habit Breaker Card
Prepare and carry a habit breaker card in your wallet. The card should be the size of a Credit Card or Playing Card. On one side of the card mention the habit that you want to break and on the other side mention the date by which you wish to achieve it.
Every morning, evening and night you should look at this card and visualize within your mind that you have come out of this habit. Visualize the benefits of eradicating the bad habit; visualize in complete details.
4. Monitor your improvement
Keep monitoring your improvement. The practice of staying far off from the bad habit is maintained for the first 3 - 4 days with ease. The problem starts after that. Read the last section to understand how to cope with a situation when you get drawn towards temptations. Make a note of the number of times you have deviated from your actual plan of improvement and at the end of the week evaluate the situation. If you feel that you have done reasonably well then give yourself a small reward in the form of chocolates or something that you like.
Tips on dealing with temptations
Temptations will come and go; remaining calm at that time will help. The reason why we have temptations is because your body is comfortable with that behavior. As a human, accepting a new way of working is a bit difficult and hence you get "temptation attacks".
So, how do you deal with it? Relax and close your eyes during such times. Compose yourself and take a deep breath. Visualize yourself improving and enjoy that visualization. Once you feel a bit relaxed; locate your Habit Breaker Card. Read the habit over and over again and check the date by which you want to achieve it. This should motivate you.
Miscellaneous tips on improving bad habits
1. Use affirmations to deal with bad habits
Affirmations can be very useful to deal with bad habits. Affirmations have a magical impact on the way you start looking and believing things.
2. Hypnosis
If all that you try does not help you get out of a bad habit; then consider using hypnosis as a remedy to cure your bad habits. This should however be the last resort.
3. Allow someone to monitor you
This works well with a spouse or a parent. Seek help from them and ask them to monitor you. Allow them to scold you or criticize you when they see you committing a bad habit. Be receptive towards their show of care for you. Don't feel bad when they actually do criticize.
4. Motivate yourself
Find a reason why you wish to break a habit and keep motivating yourself.
Habit Quotes
Desiderius Erasmus:
A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.
Francis Bacon:
Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.
Ancient Proverb:
Good habits result from resisting temptation.
Nathaniel Emmons:
Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.
Mark Twain:
Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
Conclusion:
First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you. Set yourself a goal and achieve it.

My name is Sunil Bhatia. I am a hard core Software & Web Applications Architect with an incline towards helping people advance their careers to the next level. Over the years in my career, I have been mentored and guided by many people and I wish to share all my learnings and observations through my site called http://www.careercurry.com You can also subscribe to the newsletter on my site and get updates new articles as I upload them.