Habits

Do you find it hard to keep yourself away from the internet? Do you find yourself YouTubing and just cannot stop doing it? In other words, do you have ANY addictions in your life?

To me, habits shape a person's entire life. This is because habits become unconsciously carried out once it is carefully "programmed" into your conscious mind. Now, the key to a successful life is to implant the 'right' or 'good' habits into your mind by practicing it continuously, for a certain period of time.

I'm sure you must have heard that changing or instilling a habit takes about 21 days to 30 days to be successfully done. To modify or change a certain behaviour or habit, there is a thing called "Behaviour Modification Model" (Adapted from Prochaska, Norcross, and DiClemente, 1995,pp. 10-50), which is one of the psychological theories about social change. It states that to change a really bad habit, for example smoking, will require 6 steps. First, precontemplation, where a person needs to go through a stage of denial or refusal to change.Second, contemplation, where a person will begin to question whether the 'addiction' that they have should be corrected by confronting themselves. Then, preparation is the next stage as a person goes through a certain investigation about their problem. After that, action kicks in. Where active commitment to change really occurs. However, maintenance should be carried out after that...or else everything will be back to square one. Lastly, it is termination, which is the completion of a change or behavior modification. Only 20 per cent of changes reach this stage.

To me, to change a bad habit or to instill a new habit has a simple trick. I will do it at the exact same time everyday by consciously following it up with something that I already do everyday.

For example, I used to have the bad habit of leaving all my showering bottle's cap open after using. My mother started to nag me everyday and then I decided to change that. How did I do it? Very simple. The first day that I decided to change, after using a bottle, I close the cap right away. Because, I always forgot to do that when I wait until I am done bathing. So, I just break THAT habit by doing it right BEFORE. This kind of thing does not take you 21 days to implement.

However, I do have to say that, to change a really big and bad habit, it might take you longer than 21 days or 30 days if you miss even 1 day. It differs with individuals. But, you have to remember...if you forget to do it for one day, you will tend to not do it the next day. So, if you want to succeed fast, you can keep a check card or use your mobile's reminder to help you.

Until then, best of luck!