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What is a Habit?

© Cherlene Pedrick

How do we know if a habit is a good one, a bad one – or neither good nor bad? This is one of the first steps in habit change, and we’ll discuss this here. Meanwhile, you can begin to make this determination. Divide a piece of paper into four parts. Write “Advantages of Keeping Habit” in one section and “Disadvantages of Keeping Habit in the next section. Then write “Advantages of Changing,” and “Disadvantages of Changing” in the next two sections. For the next two weeks, list all the advantages and disadvantages of keeping or changing the habit in question. Meet me back here and we’ll further discuss habits and how to change them.

I’ve recently coauthored a book with Dr. James Claiborn, Ph.D. – The Habit Change Workbook, How to Break Bad Habits and Form Good Ones. It will be released by New Harbinger Publications in November 2001. Much of the information here will be gleaned from the research I did for this book.,Copyright 2001

Welcome to a brand new subject area here at Suite101. We will be discussing habits. All kinds of habits. Our lives are made up of habits. Almost everything we do involves the use of habitual behavior. Think about it. You get up in the morning and use habits to get ready to start the day. Otherwise, you would have to relearn everything you do – combing your hair, brushing your teeth, dressing, working the toaster, and even pouring a glass of milk.

The biggest part of our discussions will be changing habits. How do we go about changing a habit? Sounds simple enough. You just do it differently. Then you get up the next day and do it differently again. Or you stop doing the habitual behavior. And the next day you get up and stop doing it again. Try doing just one thing different in your morning routine. If you usually get dressed before eating breakfast, eat breakfast first, then get dressed. Or you could make it a bit more difficult. If you aren’t used to eating breakfast, get up and eat first, then get dressed. Then practice your new habits every morning.

Daily habits might not be too hard, but what about those habitual behaviors that you dislike; the things you do that bug you or those around you? These are the habits that are hard to change. And these are the habits we’ll work on here.