Habits are things you do regularly and sometimes automatically. You got them because you started doing them all the time – whether you built them on purpose or they just fell into place. Habits can be good or bad.
While some habits – good or bad – are easy to fall into, others take time and purposeful effort. Habits also become automatic, much like a rut worn into the dirt. It’s a lot easier to push a wheelbarrow along a rut already worn than it is to get it out of that rut and start a whole new one. And while you’re starting the new rut, it can be easy for the wheel to slip back into the old one. You need to know when the current rut is good or bad, and when you need to start a new one.
If you want to stop a bad habit, you must replace it with a good one. Why? Because removing a habit creates an empty space, and it must have something to fill it. If it does not have something to fill it, it will suck in the nearest thing to it. Sometimes that’s the habit you just removed. Sometimes it’s habit that’s just as bad, or even worse. You must be purposeful with replacement if you want to get rid of a habit.
Habits are often created (purposefully or otherwise) to deal with a need. Sometimes to undo a habit, we must find out what started it in the first place so we can choose a better habit to help us. Sometimes we might have to add and/or remove something else besides the habit in order to help an issue.
Related:
Nip It in the Bud