How to Kick Bad Habits

Akhil Medarametla '20

As a junior, I’ve had time to develop as both a student and as a person. Along the way, I’ve picked up some good habits that are useful in everyday life, as well as a set of bad ones that I don’t need. Procrastination, for example, is a bad habit that many people have, and it can seriously affect school work. Although all of us are still growing as people, it’s best to kick the bad habits early in order to grow as a person. With this article, hopefully, I can provide you with some tips and methods to kick those bad habits to the curb, whether they have to do with school or life in general.

My first tip to get rid of a bad habit is to face the habit straight on. There is a common saying: “The first step in getting rid of a problem is admitting you have one in the first place.” This reasoning works here. There is no chance that you are going to get rid of a bad habit without admitting that you have this habit in the first place. You are going to want to figure out what this habit is and isolate it in order to get rid of it.

Next, you have to identify what triggers this habit. After you figure out what triggers this habit, you are going to want to deal with the triggers themselves. For example, if a habit of yours is to eat a lot of junk food when you’re stressed, then one of the best solutions would be to substitute this habit with another small activity that fills that same stretch of time. Anything to take your mind of the habit, such as quick meditation or listening to music, are things that you can do in order to make sure this habit does not kick in. Because the same activity doesn’t work with every person, the best approach would be to try out different methods in order to find out which method works best.

The final step is to develop a simple, yet applicable substitute plan that works in your everyday life. While this process by any means isn’t natural, by sticking to these steps, you can eliminate the bad habits that distract you from your goals in life.

Hopefully, I was able to shed some light on how to replace bad habits with good ones. With just a little determination and willpower, you’ll be able to become more well-rounded as a person.