Most people who read alot of self development theory probably already know this, but I wanted to say this just in case.

When we fail at something most of the time it’s not because of a single great event, but  multiple small decisions we took beforehand. Like multiple domino bricks falling over to create something.

In the worst case scenario’s these small decisions have been done so many times that they’ve become habits. This following blog will talk about how you can take your first steps to dealing with these bad habits.

Understanding the effect of your actions (Create depth in your action taking)
What separates the people I know who keep making those small decisions towards failure from those who don’t often is self awareness. They understand that every action they take has a meaning.
It’s because of this understanding that they don’t partake in certain actions that will cause them to fail at there main goals.

If you know that as soon as you get home and switch on some meme site on your computer you get lost into looking at pictures for hours, instead of using that time to work on achieving your goals don’t switch your computer on.

If you know walking past that snackbar might set of a urge to indulge yourself with junkfood take another route or make sure you’ve already eaten before walking past it.

Create depth in your action taking by knowing the meaning of every action you take.

Replace your bad habits with different habits
If you’ve read the power of habit by Charles Duhigg you know that you can’t get rid of a habit ( and if you haven’t read it you know it now). The only effective thing you can do is replace it.

A habit contains three components that basically create a cycle. You got a cue a signal that starts a craving, a action you take and the reward of that action.

According to Charles Duhigg after a lot of research he came to the conclusion that you can’t effectively replace the cue or the reward, but you can replace the action that will get you the reward.

As a example we take John S. he can’t stop eating fried food they keep serving at the cafeteria where he works. He wants to lose weight so he knows he shouldn’t.

After reading the power of habit he started experimenting with it and found out that the reason he kept eating the fried food was, because that’s the only place where he had social interactions the entire day. He wasn’t craving the food, but companionship.

Instead of going to the cafeteria for fried food all the time he went with his colleages to a saladbar around the corner. His craving for social interaction got taken care of that way and his problem with fried food was gone.

Self awareness and taking action
Even though you might’ve read everything there is to know about habitual change it’s not easy to take action. Dealing with your bad habits means looking at your flaws and that is something alot of people aren’t willing to do, because it hurts there ego. As long as your ego is calling the shots you can’t truly be self aware, because you’ll trow a blind eye at everything that doesn’t put you in a good light. Being self aware means looking at yourself as a whole.

 

You succeed as a whole or you fail as a whole. So choose to be self aware and take action!!!