How to change bad habits and rewrite your life with a practical guide based on neuroscience.
We often focus on steps to acquire new positive habits, but forget how crucial it is to rid ourselves of unhealthy habits. From harmful eating habits to smoking or excessive cell phone use, many of these addictions threaten our well-being, consuming our mental, physical and economic resources. But then, why do we get trapped in a vicious cycle? More importantly, is there a way out?
What does “bad habits” mean? Bad habits are all those behaviors that you adopt despite their negative impact on your well-being. Behavior science explains that bad habits are often rooted in two main factors: stress and boredom. Recent studies have shown that chronic stress can lead to neurobiological changes that promote the adoption of harmful habits, while boredom can trigger impulsive and unhealthy behaviors.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You can learn to manage stress and boredom in a healthy way by replacing your harmful habits with positive behaviors. Discover with us 7 ways to break the chains that keep you tied to harmful behaviors and begin your journey of personal transformation.
7 Strategies for Changing Negative Habits, Supported by Science
1. Visualize the change
Embarking on a path of change requires deep reflection on the motivations that fuel it. Introspection helps you understand your reasons for wanting to give up negative habits and identify the goals you want to achieve in your best future. For example, you may wish to quit smoking to improve your health, or reduce stress to enjoy a lighter, more balanced life.
Visualizing a future free of bad habits is critical because it allows you to clearly delineate your desired goals. Imagine yourself in that future, free of the chains of negative habits, and focus on the results you want to achieve. For example, you can imagine being able to manage stress without resorting to harmful behaviors, such as compulsive eating or procrastination at work. You can focus on what your life would be like if you stopped smoking, or if you started going to the gym.
Several studies show that when we imagine performing an activity, our brains activate neurons similar to those that are activated when we actually perform that action. In short, visualization can help you find the motivation to get off the couch and lace up your sneakers! Now let’s come to the next concrete step to free yourself from bad habits.
2. Monitor
When do you practice your bad habit? How many times a day? Where are you located? Who are you with? What triggers the behavior and gets it started?
Too often we act automatically, without being aware of our actions. Instead, it is crucial to develop awareness and understanding of the mechanisms that cause us to act in a certain way. Taking control of our behaviors first requires awareness of our actions and the factors that influence them. This allows us to identify key moments when we can take action to change our habits and transform our lives.
How can you do this? First, monitor how many times a day your bad habit occurs. Each time your bad habit occurs, make a note of it by marking it on a sheet of paper or on your cell phone, for example with a habit tracking app. At the end of the day, count all the marks and see what the total is. The goal is not to criticize yourself or feel guilty, but to be aware of when you do an unwanted habit and how often. At that point, you can start implementing the next ideas in this article and get rid of bad habits.
3. Don’t eliminate, replace
Do you want to quit smoking? Do you want to get rid of obsessive thoughts? Want to reduce time spent on social media? Change your perspective. Don’t just focus on what to quit doing. Instead, replace old habits with new activities.
According to the principle of neuronal reprogramming, the key is to clearly define your positive alternatives, making it easier to adhere to the new behavior. Decide what you will do when the urge to give in to the bad habit arises. Replace the cigarette break with a short walk. Replace unhealthy snacks with more nutritious options, such as servings of dried fruit.
Preparing a positive alternative greatly increases your chances of success. This approach reprograms your mind by replacing neural connections associated with old habits with those related to desired new activities. Substitution creates a kind of bridge between the desire for change and concrete action, making it easier to achieve your goals.
4. Introduce friction
Avoid situations that cause bad habits. If you eat chips, sweets or junk food when you have them in the house, don’t buy them. If you’re constantly looking at your notifications while studying or working, put your cell phone on airplane mode or in a place where you can’t see it, such as in your nightstand drawer. If you buy unhealthy foods when you go to the supermarket, create a shopping list and stick to it. If you procrastinate while working because of online distractions, use apps or browser extensions to temporarily block access.
This seemingly trivial method is based on the rule of friction. When you insert a practical obstacle between you and your negative habits you increase the energy needed to activate them, dramatically decreasing the likelihood of giving in to them. In other words, if you introduce friction you no longer have to resist temptations because you eliminate them at their root. Remarkably, even a small action like leaving your cell phone in another room can make a difference.
To learn more about the power of friction and how you can reverse this principle to acquire new good habits, read our article on how to change habits (the answer may surprise you). If you want to learn about three other strategies proven by science to eliminate bad habits, read on.
5. Choose who surrounds you: it will change who you are
Surround yourself with people who live the way you want. You don’t have to abandon old friends, but don’t underestimate the power of making new ones. Surrounding yourself with friends who adopt a healthy lifestyle is crucial to eliminating bad habits. Positive social influence, emotional support and shared resources play a key role in facilitating change.
Being part of a welfare-oriented social circle introduces a sense of mutual responsibility. Support from friends with similar goals reduces temptations, while sharing successes provides a positive incentive. Want to go one step further? Read on and discover the power of social alliances.
6. Ally with someone
How many times have you tried to go on a diet yourself? Or maybe you “quit smoking” but kept it a secret? That way no one can see your failure, right? I have bad news: to get rid of bad habits you have to do exactly the opposite.
Form an alliance and adopt the new positive habits together with someone. Numerous scientific studies support the effectiveness of social alliance in changing habits. Research conducted at Stanford University has shown that sharing goals with others significantly increases the likelihood of achieving them. Social psychologist Dr. Peter Gollwitzer pointed out that making a commitment in public creates “positive social pressure,” triggering a desire to maintain consistency between words and actions. Knowing that someone else expects you to improve is a powerful motivator.
So are you ready to challenge your habits with a friend? Find your gym, diet, or book club buddy, and get ready to change your life. Knowing you have someone counting on you is the spring you need to reach your goals. Share the article with your partner in crime and begin this journey together. But first, one last crucial point that deserves attention, perhaps the most important one in the entire article.
7. Reprogram your mind
Within our brain is a selective filter called the reticular activating system. Reticular system-what? Sounds like a name as complicated as it is mysterious, doesn’t it? Let’s find out what it is together.
This intricate system controls our waking state and shapes our perception of the world. Imagine this filter as a gatekeeper that decides what to let into our consciousness. If we harbor positive thoughts and confidence, this gatekeeper selects and amplifies inputs that encourage us and propel us toward success. But if we self-sabotage with doubt and negativity, this gatekeeper becomes our worst enemy, filtering out the good and positive in life and leaving us in darkness.
When we doubt our abilities, the reticular system will be quick to amplify criticism and ignore signs of progress. If, for example, you have low self-esteem and believe you are not good at making new friends, your reticular system may emphasize and amplify situations in which you feel rejected by others, while ignoring or minimizing positive interactions that might counter these beliefs.
The good news? We can train this goalkeeper! The key to making it work to our advantage is confidence. If we cultivate the belief that we can achieve our goals, the reticular system will align to support transformation, becoming our best ally in changing habits. So, are you ready to harness the power of the reticular system to achieve your goals?
Towards positive change
Getting rid of bad habits is a journey of authenticity and growth, one that requires determination and perseverance. If you have followed along so far, you now have concrete tools to defeat your negative habits: visualize success, monitor your behaviors, apply the substitution principle and the clutch principle, or form a social alliance, whether it is with a friend or with your (now well-known) ascending activator reticular system. And if you want to go one step further, read our article on how to adopt new positive habits.
Your personal revolution begins now: every effort is a page written in the triumph of change. How did you overcome difficult times? What were your winning strategies? Share your experience in the comments and inspire other readers in their own transformation journey.
Find us on social media