Do you have bad habits?
Do you want to quit any of these bad habits in your life?
If you are like so many of us, then there is something that you want to improve upon or quit in your life.
We’re going to talk about bad habits, what you can do to break them, and why this is so important in your life.
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Talking About Bad Habits
Bad habits are often a source of conversation in English.
We’ve actually talked about bad habits before, such as in this episode: Dopamine, Standing Desks, and Book Clubs and What They Mean For 2018
Bad habits are discussed so often, that you will often find articles on them.
Everyone wants to quit their bad habits, and so it’s about talking about them openly.
There was recently a great article about this called “What you Actually Need to Change a Bad Habit (Hint: It’s not Willpower)” by Locke Hughes on 6/21/19.
This article discussed how people usually think that if they have willpower then they can break a bad habit.
That’s not necessarily true, and in the article they refer to the fact that most people fail when it comes to New Years resolutions as an example.
The article speaks to the fact that willpower is in your head and that it won’t necessarily help you when you need it to.
If you feel overwhelmed at some point in time, then it’s easy to feel like we no longer have that willpower anymore.
If you are really set on breaking a bad habit, you may have that willpower because that’s when you need it.
However on a regular day or in other moments, it’s harder to have that willpower.
This is when you tend to let yourself go, give into your old bad habits, and ignore any potential willpower that you may have had.
That’s the basic idea of why willpower is good, but you can really make changes in other more effective ways.
The existence of willpower will forever be questioned, but in the end it’s about relying on what you need to break those bad habits once and for all.
Tips For Breaking The Bad Habits
We all have bad habits and that’s just a part of life.
You have probably considered what your bad habits are, and thought that at some point you wanted to break them.
How do you break them though?
How do you move past the bad habits that may be holding you back?
There are a few tips that come from the article, and you can hopefully grab some useful insight from this.
- Set yourself up for success: This is an important one because it dictates how focused you are on getting rid of the bad habits and moving forward in a positive way. Don’t be near things that will make you want to give into your bad habits. Think of ways to foster those good habits–if you want to read more then surround yourself with books and move your TV out of your bedroom.
- Don’t do too much at once: Sometimes even with the best of intentions, we can overdo it. When we are overwhelmed then we tend to lose focus and that’s when the bad things happen. Don’t try to fix a lot of habits at once, and rest when you need it. Be sure that you have what it takes to focus on the task at hand.
- Always keep the end goal in mind: Remind yourself what you are doing all of this for. Keep that goal visible and in front of you at all times. Then this will allow you to work towards this goal, no matter what may be trying to drag you down.
- Have others help you: Talk to those closest to you about the bad habits you are trying to break. Consider these to be your accountability partners so that they can give you that little push when you need it. They will help you to keep going, even when it’s easier to give into the bad habit.
- It’s okay to fall backwards, so don’t take it too hard: We all have those points in time where we fall back two steps. Though you may make progress, you may also have times where you lose your momentum. Don’t let this be an excuse to give up, just use this as a way of motivating yourself when you need that little push. Don’t be too hard on yourself because we all fall along the way.
Why Is This Important?
Why are we talking about this today?
Why is it so important to break bad habits or to be aware of how to do it?
If you think about it, you may have bad habits even with your learning or speaking in English.
It may be pronunciation, grammar, or things like that.
So the tips about how to break bad habits apply to your ability to learn and master English, so this is very applicable.
If you are trying to break bad habits within learning and speaking English specifically, here are a few things to keep in mind.
- Be with others who are speaking or learning English: This forces you to listen to English and really comprehend it. This also forces you to really speak English even in your free time. If your friends won’t speak it with you, then find others who will.
- Focus on different areas of improvement: Think about where your weaknesses are or where you may struggle. Then think of ways that you can improve upon them. This isn’t a criticism, because in the end we all have areas that we need to improve upon.
- Find an accountability partner for English: This is a great way to move forward because you help to keep each other accountable. You can correct each other, or just tell each other to speak English most of the time.
The more that you can work to fine tune your English, the easier that it will become.
Figure out where your bad habits lie or what areas you may have for improvement, and then focus on them.
We all have things that we need to improve upon, and if your bad habits lie within learning English then you can overcome them.
Bad Habits As A Topic of Conversation
We all like to talk about things in our life.
When you are trying to quit a bad habit, then you may find that you want to talk about it a lot.
Some of this may be for support, and some of it may just be that talking about it is helpful.
You may find yourself in a conversation offering somebody else support who is trying to quit a bad habit.
In addition to talking about willpower and quitting the bad habit, you may also find other ways to talk about this in English.
- Kick a habit: You are trying to quit it or stop it, and so you may talk about kicking the habit. This is another way of saying that you are getting rid of this bad habit in your life.
- Quitting cold turkey: This is something that you might say about something like quitting smoking or something along those lines. You are quitting a bad habit that has been holding you back, and you just want to quit it right here and right now.
- Creature of habit: This isn’t so much about a bad habit per se, but it is about someone who likes to always stick to what they are used to. You are stuck in this place or this way of living.
You will find yourself in many conversations that talk about bad habits, and now you know how to do so.
These idioms or phrases will help you to talk about a very common topic of conversation that comes up often in English.
Takeaway
Are you a creature of habit?
What do you do to break bad habits?
This can be an interesting thing to look at in your life, and it can also make for a great topic of conversation.
Try to focus on these bad habits or your ability to quit them, and then apply them to the goals you have in your life.
Then you have something to work towards, and you also have a great topic of conversation.
This all leads to great connections too because we all have bad habits we want to quit.
If you have any questions, please leave them below in the comments section.
We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
