Today’s Thought: Bad Habits
by, Corey Wells

There is probably nothing more difficult in life than eliminating a bad habit. Habits like overeating, a poor attitude or even self-criticism are especially hard to break. Every time we try and fail we end up lowering our self-esteem further. So how can you get rid of those bad habits? Try replacing them with good ones.

Eliminating a bad habit is much easier if you replace it with a more productive good habit. For example, if you have compulsive negative thoughts about yourself try replacing that thought with something positive. Let’s say the thought is, “Why I can’t do anything right?” Try replacing that thought with, “How can I learn how to do this?” Substituting good habits for bad ones can be a very effective way of stopping unwanted behavior and increasing your self-esteem.

If you continue to struggle with overcoming your bad habit, try limiting the practice to a specific time and place. In other words, schedule the habit. If you have a tendency overeat tell yourself that you won’t eat past 8:00 PM. Or if you have a specific diet you want to follow, tell yourself you’ll follow the diet Monday to Saturday and Sunday will be a flexible day for you. Meaning you can have the fast food or cake you have been craving. You’ll be surprised at how effective this can be at helping you quit an undesirable practice.

It’s also very important to reward yourself when you’ve followed through on your plan. So if you go a week without a negative thought, treat yourself to something really enjoy. Just ensure you don’t reward your good behavior with a bad behavor. Rewarding successes greatly affects your chance of converting bad habits into good habits.

Let’s get started.

1. “To talk to someone who does not listen is enough to tense the devil.”
   -Pearl Bailey,
2. ”Obstinate people can be divded into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.”
   -Aristotle,
3. ” I’d rather regret the things I have done than the things that I haven’t.”
   -Lucille Ball
4. ” The past empowers the present, and the sweeping footsteps leading to this present mark the pathways to the future.”
   -Mary Catherine Bateson
5. ” We must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd…from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions.”
   -Sarah Bernhardt,
6. ” There is nothing so easy to learn as experience and nothing so hard to apply.”
   -Josh Billings,
7. ” True love is night jasmine, a diamond in darkness, the heartbeat no cardiologist has ever heard. It is the most common of miracles, fashioned of fleecy clouds — a handful of stars tossed into the night sky.”
   -Jim Bishop
8. “a fool learns from experience. A wise man learns from the experience of others.”
   -Otto von Bismarck,

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