You can change your habits by understanding what triggers them and replacing bad habits with better ones. While circumstances are outside your control, your reactions and behaviors are not. Habits are formed from a trigger, mindset, and action. By changing your mindset and replacing the action, you can break old habits and form new ones. For example, the author was triggered each morning to feel groggy and drink coffee, but changed his mindset to believe in an alternative and replaced coffee with smoothies, breaking his coffee addiction habit.

1. How to change a
habit
Your circumstances don't have to dictate your behavior.
In other words...
The habits you have are not permanent.
You can change them.
By figuring out what triggers you to indulge in bad habits, you can
replace those habits with more appropriate ones.
You see...
You can't choose the circumstances.
The triggers.
You can't have only good days at work.
Or friends and family that are always supportive and understanding.
So, there will be some bad days.
But you can control how you react to them.
At least to a certain degree.

2. If you change your mindset and approach the triggers differently, not
only will you replace the old habits...
But your old identity as well.
You'll become a different person.
Let me show you what I mean with an example from a few years
ago...
There was a time, I was basically addicted to coffee.
Each morning, I was feeling groggy, irritable, and low energy...
Like my body was craving a cup of hot coffee.
And I didn't like that habit.
But I couldn't just stop being groggy and irritable in the morning.
Then I read about habit formation.
Every habit we have is made of three parts.
1. Trigger
2. Mindset
3. Action
And I realized this...

3. I was being triggered by early rising to feel groggy, irritable, and low
energy.
I believed that coffee is the only fuel that can get me going.
So I drank coffee each morning.
Pretty simple, right?
Well, the cure for my bad habit was also as simple as that.
I first changed my mindset.
I started believing I can quit coffee and find another way to boost my
energy in the morning.
Then I tried making smoothies instead.
And it worked!
After a few weeks of drinking smoothies, I wasn't even thinking about
coffee.
Each morning, I mix bananas, apples, berries, or something else,
and add a bit of milk to make smoothies tastier.
I drink it and I feel great.
In fact, smoothie makes me feel much better than coffee.
My energy doesn't crash later in the day.

4. I don't feel awful if I don't drink a smoothie in the morning.
Overall, I'm healthier.
And the only thing I did... I replaced one action (drinking coffee)with
another (drinking smoothies.)
If you're looking to get rid of some bad habits, you can do the same.
Find out what triggers you to indulge in bad habits.
Then come up with some productive and helpful actions you can
take instead.
Remember, ...
You can replace each habit you don't like with a new one.
Jayadeva de Silva for Humantalents International