4 Steps To Ditching The Bad Habits That Are Keeping You From Being Your Best You

At some point in life, most of us will come to a point where we want to improve something about our lives or ourselves. Maybe we gained a little more weight than we wanted, or the house has become…a mess. Whatever the cause is, it can lead us to confusion, and often times, we fail to make real changes.

Whatever your reason, taking these steps will help give you a road map to success and more awareness of yourself and the decisions you make.


1) Take it one step at a time

If you go running with the wind off of adrenaline and a spur of motivation you will quickly burn yourself out and lose interest.

Remember, when you decide that you are going to make a change to your lifestyle, you are reprogramming how your brain responds and how your body takes action. That is a big commitment2 that will take real dedication, time, and effort.

Don’t worry, it is totally worth it and in the long run you will be happier and healthier without even realizing it!

2) Understand your objective

In order to successfully change your habits you need to understand what it is you want to change and why.

This takes a bit of homework, you should write out a clear and concise goal, then add in the pros and cons of each, and finally evaluate whether this really seems like a feasible change that will make a positive worthwhile impact on your life.

An example of this would be if your goal is to lose weight, you would write that out, then list pros like; increased energy and healthier body. The cons will vary per person but could be along the lines of the time it takes to work out, or the fast food you will miss, it all depends on you and it is important for you to be honest with yourself.

Don’t worry about the specifics just yet, one step at a time ; )! If you are a heavier person then losing weight may be an obvious pro but other goals like taking on a new hobby, or changing the way you do something might not be a fit for your life at that moment.

"Don't wait until you've reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of yourself every step you take toward reaching your goal".

3) Create a plan of attack

This is where all the details come in. If you really want to be successful you need to create your own road plan of attack and road map. Sadly, There is no magic wand or overnight fix so don’t skip out on this part because you think your willpower is strong enough.

Our brains are hard wired to resist change and a lot of our habits are on auto pilot, meaning we sometimes aren’t consciously aware of everything we are doing. Same thing as flipping a light switch even though you know the power is out. Creating a plan of action puts more control in your hands and is possibly the most important part of changing a habit.

Your plan should include all of the steps you will take to achieve your idea of success and broken down to all of the elements. If you wanted to feel better you may think, its just my age, all my test came back ok or maybe its stress.  Each of these should be separated and tackled separately.

Back to the beginning, taking on too much at once wears you out fast and in health that can mean neglect in which would have the opposite effect that you want.

How would you build your healthy lifestyle? Tell friends, hire a coach, or do some reach on your own.

Breaking this down even more, if you decided to go with research, you could add 30 mins a day researching things that will help you, then implement one a day or one a  week so that you can keep track of how that is working. Once you get that under control, continue on to the rest.

It is really important to remember taking it one step at a time, even if this feels a little uncomfortable. Once you get the hang of things making changes will be easier and you will be able to take on more at once.

4) Be ready for a roller coaster ride

Making any kind of change to your lifestyle is going to be a challenge. I am just getting it out there because you will have times where the excuses in your head will overpower you, life happens, and not every day is a ray of sunshine.

You will fall off track at least once and that is ok, as long as you get back up you are making progress, and each time you learn something new about what does and does not work for you. Ultimately that makes the process easier and makes you more self-aware.

Never tell yourself that you are a screw up or that you cannot achieve your goals. Everyone has the capability to change and improve their habits; it just depends on how much commitment you put into it.

You are Awesome!

~ Lisa