Why Most People Will Never Break Bad Habits...

The #1 Mistake I’ve Made With Bad Habits
& how it can save you years of your life

There’s a common misconception about breaking bad habits.

A mistake that almost everyone makes:

Trying to simply get rid of a bad habit.

To simply stop doing something.

This does not work!

I know because I’ve been there and tried that.

To no success whatsoever…

Don’t Ever Eliminate Bad Habits!

At the surface, it sounds great to try this.

However…

The main issue is this:

Let’s say you successfully break your habit of doomscrolling for hours.

Most of the time, you’ll find that instead of doomscrolling, you’re now spending more time playing video games, watching Netflix or being a keyboard warrior on Reddit.

You didn’t eliminate the bad habit, you replaced it with another one.

Sound familiar?

I’ve spent YEARS being stuck because I kept “cycling” through multiple bad habits. I would “eliminate” one and then fall victim to another one, or I would fall back into the same habit.

All because I didn’t know about ”The Void”…

Avoid the Void

here’s what I wish I knew earlier:

The best way to get rid of a bad habit is to replace it with something better!

It’s the only way to avoid The Void.

When I was trying to get rid of my bad habit of playing video games endlessly, I suddenly found myself with too much time. As a result, I got bored and my mind fixed the “problem” with social media, watching things on YouTube, and other things…

Here’s the rule of thumb:

If you don’t deliberately replace a bad habit, your mind will do it for you. However, your mind will replace it with whatever is easiest and most fun in the present moment!

And those are almost always terrible for you long-term!

A.k.a. different bad habits.

The solution is to think beforehand about your desired, good habit that you’re going to do instead. Work diligently on reinforcing this new habit into your day to day life.

Never Do This Again!
How NOT to Break Bad Habits

Have you ever set goals?

Have you ever fallen short on them?

And, have you ever responded like:

Don’t you love it when you can hear a gif?

Anyway:

Beating yourself up when falling short of your expectations is the worst thing you can do! It does NOT work in getting you motivated for doing better next time.

Not for most people at least. (For a special few, this would work)

For most, beating ourselves up only puts us down!

Gotta love me some irony, amiright?

The reason that beating yourself up doesn’t work is because it can destroy your confidence and self image.

When you tell yourself you’re a stupid, fat hobbit when you fail to drag your ass to the gym again, do you think that makes you feel better or worse about yourself?

It’s gonna make you feel worse.

So, let me ask you this:

When it it easier to do the right thing>

Is it when:

• You feel confident or feel insecure?

• You feel happy or feel miserable?

• You feel worthy or unworthy?

• You feel capable or like a like loser?

I don’t think you need me to answer that for you.

What to Do Instead?

There’s a simple mantra that tells you all you need to know:

“What gets rewarded gets repeated.”

We have evolved to act like this:

If a caveman would walk around and find an apple tree, he’d be rewarded, not just with the food but also the praise from his tribesmen. The brain gives off chemicals like dopamine to reinforce the behavior.

It creates the idea of “If I walk this way from the camp, I find food”.

Positive reinforcement goes a long way!

But, there are 2 main pitfalls:

1. If you give yourself a tangible reward (let’s say candy) for doing the right behavior. Your mind can make it all about the reward. It doesn’t do the work for the goal you want to achieve, but the reward you give yourself.
   
   The next step your mind takes is skipping the work, and going straight for the reward instead.
   

2. The reinforcement needs to be close to the activity for it to work. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. You go to the gym consistently and you see the results after months of hard work.
   
   Many people will have given up before then.

How I Reward Myself

Because of the above, I rarely reward myself with tangible things. That doesn’t mean it’s not effective, but I limit it so that it doesn’t become about the reward itself.

Instead, I make sure to celebrate my wins!

No matter how small they are!

Whenever I come home from the gym or whenever I’ve done some extensive work like creating a long video or writing a newsletter, I will look at myself with a grin and tell myself that I’ve done an awesome job!

I take the time to pause and acknowledge my hard work.

And of course, I do the same when seeing results from my work.

Here’s the mental trick that works for me:

I link my activity to the goal in the future.

For example, with my YouTube channel and business, I know that it will likely take me months or years to turn into a fulltime income. It’s a dream that’s like a faraway memory. A mere dot on a horizon far far away.

If I ONLY motivated myself with the end goal, I would likely give up.

So instead, I tell myself

“Awesome! I just recorded a new video which helps me achieve my long-term goal of making this work!”

What I’m doing is to make the activity into the reward. The activity gets reinforced because I clearly picture how it benefits the long term goal. I celebrate the action and create positive motivation from the progress.

Try it out yourself!

Fix Bad Habits Quickly

Your eyes are powerful, my friend!

In fact, a lot of our habits are created by our eyes. In this video I’m sharing the fastest way to change your own behavior and habits to get the results that you desire to get in life!

Go ahead and watch this now:

Action Steps for Breaking Bad Habits

What’s a bad habit you’re trying to get rid of?

How about starting the process today of eliminating it from your life?

You can follow these steps:

1. Pick a single bad habit you’re trying to get rid of. Avoid the temptation of skipping steps and trying to eliminate multiple bad habits at the same time.
   

2. When you have one in mind, ask yourself: “Do I only engage in this bad habit in specific situations, or is it more general?”
   
   If it’s specific → go to step 3.
   If not → go to step 5.
   

3. When it’s only happening in specific situations, ask yourself what the triggers are. In other words, what are the causes of you doing the activity you’re trying to get rid of?
   

4. When you find the trigger(s), can you get rid of them? Can you change your behavior to make sure you don’t get the temptation in the first place?
   
   I.E. If you pass a Starbucks every morning on your way to work, and that triggers you to spend money you’d rather keep, simply take a different route. You won’t see it and so the temptation isn’t there.
   

5. If you can’t eliminate the trigger of a bad habit or when it’s too general (like stress), the best option is to replace the habit.
   
   In order to replace a habit, look for something that gives the same positive benefit. as your bad habit. For example, smoking relieves stress, but so does chewing gum. Your phone relieves boredom, but so can working on a passion project.
   

6. Once you know what new habit you’re going to replace your old one with, reinforce it aggressively. Make it easy to do the new thing and drag yourself off to do it if needed.
   
   Your mind will try to autopilot into the old, bad habit so don’t let it!
   

7. Whenever you’re doing the new behavior successfully, reinforce it by celebrating your win! Build a positive feedback loop between your actions, the progress you’re making and the motivation that comes from it.
   

8. Don’t get too complacent anytime soon! Replacing a bad habit takes time, so don’t ease up too early or you might fall back into old habits.

As a final note:

If you haven’t already watched the video above, I’d highly recommend doing so. It shares how you can change your environment in order to change your behavior almost instantly!