Let Go Of Your Bad Habits...

Habits can make us or break us. Think of them as the engine underneath the hood of your car. Good habits will take us forward in life and the bad ones will set us (the car) in reverse. Every now and then you should look outside the window and see if you are going in the right direction because why would you want to be going the wrong direction? You won't get very far going that way.

Changing your habits doesn't have to be hard. With a few simple steps you will be well on your way to having good beneficial habits.

* Learn what drives the habit so you can learn to stop fueling it. For example, why do you watch so much television? Is it that you are bored? There are plenty of other things that you can find to do that will be better for you then sitting in front of the TV. Go for a walk, run some much needed errands, catch up on some work, or spend some time outside with the kids.

* Notice your habits, often times we do things so often that we do not realize that we are even doing them. In order to change those things you need to be aware of what it is that your habits are.

* Take note, into how bad the habits are. While watching your favorite shows on television is not really bad. If you find that you are ignoring everything else, such as chores, work or other important daily tasks then you may want to rethink the whole TCV situation. Record your shows to watch at a more convenient time. This will free up your day to focus on other things. Lets say that you spend on an average, 2 ½ hours a day watching TV, which adds up to 17 ½ hours a week or 3 days a month which is more than one month a year. Just imagine what you could do if you had an entire extra month each year!

* What are the consequences of your actions? Let's go back to the TV scenario. What are you giving up to watch the TV? Extra work you could do from the office. Quality time with your kids or maybe you have let things go in the house to sit in front of the TV for so long that now you feel it is too far gone to tackle the cleaning. You do not need to do something that will cause you to neglect other aspects of your life that are important to your well being.

Now that you know where you're bad habits lie, it is time to make the changes necessary to better your self. You know what you do wrong so make a list of the good habits you want to work on. It takes two weeks of doing the same thing everyday to create a new habit. Start working on the good list and take away one bad habit for every good one started. In two weeks time, you will have dropped one bad habit and picked a good one.