Archive for the ‘Bad Habits’ Category

How to Break Bad Habits

There are hundreds of bad habits and hundreds of ways to break them. if you need help, there are books, support groups, and counselors to help you. Mostly you can take a common sense approach and get the job done.

If bragging is one of your bad habits, you could either be insecure or overly proud. It usually makes the other person feel bad, or they resent you. You can get a handle on this bad habit if you stop for a few seconds before you talk. Give yourself time to think about others and how this will sound to them. Think about whether you are telling it to them, or to yourself.

Another one of these bad habits is name dropping. Again, you may be insecure. Most people will not take it in a friendly way. Try to tell your same stories but without the names to stop yourself from doing this. You might say, “My friend Brad” instead of “my friend Brad Pitt,” or something like that.

Illegal Bad Habits

Some bad habits are not only illegal. They push the envelope of what can be considered merely bad habits. However, in a way they are bad habits. They are definitely bad, and they happen frequently enough to call them habits.

Serious fighting can be illegal bad habits. This is the kind of fighting that leads to assault arrests and convictions. People do not think before they act. Or, if they do, they only think angry, destructive thoughts. This fighting can cause injury or even death.

Some fighting happens in bars. Barroom fights are bad habits. Too many people are intoxicated. There are not enough reasonable people in the room to calm things down. There are also often shortages in bars.

Kids and Bad Habits

Kids go through periods of having bad habits. Some of their bad habits are worrisome and some are just really annoying. Parents agonize over what to do about their children’s unacceptable behaviors. There are a few things they should know.

1. What you see as bad habits may actually be natural stages of child development. If your very young child is examining the lint between his toes regularly, you might think it is a bad habit. It might be, though, that the child simply finds toe lint interesting. The child will outgrow the fascination and the bad habit will disappear.

2. So-called bad habits may be ways for the child to soothe themselves. At times when they would ordinarily feel like screaming and crying, they may suck on their clothes instead. This makes them feel calm and secure.

Inconsiderate Bad Habits

Some bad habits are just plain inconsiderate. The person does their behaviors without a thought to the person he is affecting. A little attention to the feelings of others would stop many of these bad habits in their tracks.

Many people have inconsiderate bad habits in the kitchen. You will find them drinking from the milk jug or juice carton. They do not consider that someone else might not like to drink after them. They are in the habit of doing it, so they do not think about it.

Someone might have the bad habit of opening two liter bottles of pop and leaving the caps off. This is inconsiderate to the person buying the soda because the soda goes flat. No one will drink it. It is also a bad habit to open carbonated drink cans and drink a few swallows only. Many people will do this and then right away open another.

Bad Habits Can Be Expensive

Bad habits can be very expensive to maintain. Never mind that they are annoying to others. Do not think about the pain you cause yourself, if you do not want to. Just remember that your bad habits are hitting you where it hurts-in your wallet.

Smoking has always been a bad habit to have. In past times, people smoked more cigarettes, but cigarettes were cheaper. Now, many people have cut down on the number of cigarettes they smoke per day. Yet, those few are more expensive now than the many were back then. That’s accounting for inflation, too.

This is because lawmakers have seen fit to put large taxes on cigarettes. In many areas, the taxes are set to go up even higher. Some states are planning hikes of $10 per carton. If that will not stop you from smoking, what will?

Avoiding Bad Habits

Would it not be nice if you could avoid bad habits instead of having to quit them after starting? No one will avoid all bad habits. There are just too many to stay away from them all. Yet, you can reduce the number of bad habits you have to conquer.

There are certain bad habits that you can avoid altogether. Your body has no need for nicotine or tar from cigarettes. So, if you do not take that first cigarette, you will never have to face the daunting task of giving them up. It is well worth any social discomfort you might feel to dodge that bullet.

Other bad habits are a matter of degree. Your body needs food. Many people realize that they will gain a lot of weight if they do not take action. However, you cannot just stop eating altogether. You could for awhile, but that would not be healthy either. Instead you must find a way to limit yourself.

Addictive Bad Habits

The question is: “Are addictions actually bad habits?” According to the habit model of addiction, they are. This theory of addiction states that the only reason to say there is a difference is to persecute “addicts.”

People with bad habits of smoking often feel much persecuted. While smoking is not illegal (at least not yet), it is shunned by society as a whole. At first, you could smoke anywhere. Expecting fathers smoked in the maternity waiting rooms. Then, you could smoke in buildings, but only in a designated smoking room.

Then there came the designated smoking area outside the building. Now restaurants, bars, and whole cities are going smoke-free. It seems that a lot of people have given up their bad habits. However, they do not seem to remember how badly they were addicted before. The truth is that in a way, they are still addicted and always will be. That is how addiction works.

Bad Habits in Sports

Sports are fun to watch and to play, as long as you curb your bad habits. To be successful at any sport, you need to develop the behavior patterns that will lead to winning. A part of this is avoiding certain bad habits.

Taking care of the body should be of utmost importance to anyone who wants to play sports seriously. Smoking and drinking are bad habits that do not mix well with sports. Smoking cuts a person’s breathing capabilities. It makes the person gasp for air after a short practice run.

Drinking alcohol is another bad habit for athletes. It dehydrates the body and slows coordination. However, drinking other fluids is necessary. Some sports players have the bad habits of not keeping themselves hydrated. This should not happen, since there are usually plenty of water and electrolyte-rich drinks available at the event.

Irritating Bad Habits

Some bad habits can irritate the people around you. These habits can grate on peoples’ nerves until they feel like physically stopping you themselves. Some of them are nervous habits and others are thoughtless behaviors.

Some bad habits have to do with shopping. You can really irritate someone if you have the bad habit of following their car to a parking space and waiting with your car close behind. This makes them feel rushed, and it may make it hard for them to get out. By the time the leave they will be very irritated.

You might display bad habits when you get in line to check out at the store. If you cut in line, everyone behind you will be annoyed with you. You make them later, and you give the impression that you are more important than they are.

Bad Habits in the Workplace

Everyone suffers when someone on the job has bad habits in the workplace. Bad habits can make for an environment that is unfriendly, unproductive, or even unsafe. You can only correct your bad habits in the workplace if you recognize them.

One of the most noticeable bad habits in the workplace is tardiness. Some people just have a habit of being late to everything. They are late to arrive, late back from break, and late back from lunch. This not only puts them in jeopardy of losing their jobs. It can affect the productivity of the whole crew or office.

Absenteeism is another bad habit that people can fall into easily. A new trend is to make all accumulated days off the same. Sick days, personal days, and vacation days are lumped together. You just have a set number of days off and it is up to you how you take them.

Archives