If you’ve ever tried to kick a bad habit, you’d know that the process is painstaking and frustrating, with what feels like more lapses than accomplishments. Elizabeth Grace Saunders, founder of Real Life E Time Coaching and Training and author of The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: How to Achieve More Success With Less Stress, believes that the key to winning the war with unproductive behavior is understanding it and reacting to it in a proactive way.

1. Busting Bad Behavior or
How to Stop That Habit from Kicking Your Ass

2. Have you ever tried to quit your bad behavior?

3. Was it smoking? Overeating? Being disorganized?

4. If you have, then you know that it isn’t as easy as it seems.

5. Busting that bad habit doesn’t happen in a linear way.

6. Elizabeth Grace Saunders: “New habits happen in a two
steps forward, one step back pattern. It’s not just having
the right system that matters, but grooving the habit so
that you reflexively respond in the correct matter.”

7. What she means is that it isn’t a matter of having the right
SYSTEM, but understanding the habit so you can react
PROACTIVELY.

8. Habits are actually decisions that we once stopped making.

9. It could be the decision to keep smoking.
Or the decision to eat another cookie.
Or the decision to watch TV instead of doing homework.

10. Therefore, we have the power to once again make a decision or at
least, lead ourselves into conditions favorable to making the
decision.

11. So how do you finally kick that bad habit’s ass?

12. 1. Recognize Your Relapse Cue

13. It’s pointless to blame the system or blame yourself. Instead, see
your lapses as an opportunity to create a better outcome in the
future.

14. Tip: Identify the routine leading up to the habit. Did you smoke a
cigarette because you were stressed? Did you eat the cake
because you were bored?

15. “being known as a problem
solver is a good thing. But
when people start looking
at you to put out their
fires… that is different. They
will keep coming back and
you will soon be an
expected service.
2. Develop a Reward System

16. Now that you’ve identified your RELAPSE CUE, it’s time for a
NEW, EQUALLY PLEASURABLE, and MORE PRODUCTIVE
behavior to take its place.

17. Tip: Craving nicotine at 3pm? Think about taking a stroll to your
officemate’s desk for a quick chat instead? Wanting to have a
second slice of cake? Maybe phone your children.

18. 3. Celebrate Your Small Victories

19. Keeping a daily record of your small, but real, victories will help
you feel great about yourself and motivated to continue.

20. Tip: Record your activities. Did you have an apple instead of a
steak? Were you too weak to resist the cigarettes today? This
record will help you pinpoint what triggers your lapses, and what
allows you to stay on track

21. 4. Don’t Sweat It

22. Excessive worry leads to paranoia and unproductive
anxiety. Give yourself permission to fail but continue to
focus on the “here” and “now.”

23. Tip: Letting go of your fear of failing actually lowers your perception
of risk, allowing you a greater chance of finally kicking your habit.

24. The success of your future and your future endeavors
depends on how resilient you are.

25. And anyone who’s ever tried to kick a bad habit knows
that this scenario requires ALL THE RESILIENCE in the
world.

26. So do you give up or do you give it another go?

27. Don’t let it kick your ass any longer.

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