You don’t actually need to follow every single one of these steps to quit a habit,
but the more of them you do, the higher your chances. I recommend all of them if
you want to be all in.
1. Have a big motivation. Lots of times people quit things because it sounds
nice: “It would be nice to quit caffeine.” But that’s a weak motivation. What
you really want is strong motivation: I quit smoking because I knew it was
killing me, and I knew my kids would smoke as adults if I didn’t quit. Know your Why, and connect with it throughout your quit. Write it down at the top
of a document called your “Quit Plan.”
2. Make a big commitment. Now that you know your motivation, be fully
committed. A common mistake is say, “I’ll do this today,” but then letting
yourself off the hook when the urges get strong. Instead, tell everyone about
it. Ask for their help. Give them regular updates and be accountable. Have a
support partner you can call on when you need help. Ask people not to let
you off the hook. Be all in.
3. Be aware of your triggers. What events trigger your bad habit? The habit
doesn’t just happen, but is triggered by something else: you smoke when
other people smoke, or you shop when you’re stressed out, or you eat junk
food when you’re bored, or you watch porn when you’re lonely, or you check
your social media when you feel the need to fill space in your day. Watch
yourself for a few days and notice what triggers your habit, make a list of
triggers on your Quit Plan, and then develop an awareness of when those
triggers happen.
4. Know what need the habit is meeting. We have bad habits for a reason —
they meet some kind of need. For every trigger you wrote down, look at what
need the habit might be meeting in that case. The habit might be helping you
cope with stress. For some of the other triggers, it might help you to
socialize, or cope with sadness, boredom, loneliness, feeling bad about
yourself, being sick, dealing with a crisis, needing a break or treat or
comfort. Write these needs down on your Quit Plan, and think of other ways
you might cope with them.
5. Have a replacement habit for each trigger. So what will you do when you
face the trigger of stress? You can’t just not do your old bad habit — it will
leave an unfilled need, a hole that you will fill with your old bad habit if you
don’t meet the need somehow. So have a good habit to do when you get
stressed, or when someone gets angry at you, etc. Make a list of all your
triggers on your Quit Plan, with a new habit for each one (one new, good
habit can serve multiple triggers if you like).
6. Watch the urges, and delay. You will get urges to do your bad habit, when
the triggers happen. These urges are dangerous if you just act on them
without thinking. Learn to recognize them as they happen, and just sit there
watch the urge rise and get stronger, and then and fall. Delay yourself, if you really want to act on the urge. Breathe. Drink some water. Call someone for
help. Go for a walk. Get out of the situation. The urge will go away, if you
just delay.
7. Do the new habit each time the trigger happens. This will take a lot of
conscious effort — be very aware of when the trigger happens, and very
aware of doing the new habit instead of the old automatic one. If you mess
up, forgive yourself, but you need to be very conscious of being consistent
here, so the new habit will start to become automatic. This is one reason it’s
difficult to start with bad habits — if there are multiple triggers that happen
randomly throughout the day, it means you need to be conscious of your
habit change all day, every day, for weeks or more.
8. Be aware of your thinking. We justify bad habits with thinking. You have
to watch your thoughts and realize when you’re making excuses for doing
your old bad habit, or when you start feeling like giving up instead of
sticking to your change. Don’t believe your rationalizations.
9. Quit gradually. Until recently, I was a fan of the Quit Cold Turkey
philosophy, but I now believe you can quit gradually. That means cut back
from 20 cigarettes to 15, then 10, then 5, then zero. If you do this a week at
a time, it won’t seem so difficult, and you might have a better chance of
succeeding.
10. Learn from mistakes. We all mess up sometimes — if you do, be forgiving,
and don’t let one mistake derail you. See what happened, accept it, figure
out a better plan for next time. Write this on your Quit Plan. Your plan will
get better and better as you continually improve it. In this way, mistakes are
helping you improve the method.
I’m not saying this is an easy method, but many people have failed because they
ignored the ideas here. Don’t be one of them. Put yourself all into this effort, find
your motivation, and replace your habit with a better habit for each trigger. You
got this.