MENTAL DIET

BREAKING BAD HABITS (PART 3)

“Freedom is not the right to do what I want but the power to do what I ought.”

• BILL GOTHARD

What you affix in your thoughts, words, and deeds affirm your habits which conform into your character which confirms your destiny. Your association or the people you hang around with play a vital role in habit formation because you tend to imbibe the qualities of the people you spend most of your time with.

ZigZiglar reveals, “When you are around a negative, evil or destructive environment long enough you will go from objection to tolerance, from tolerance to acceptance, and from acceptance to participation and even enjoyment.”

Therefore, your association will either influence or infect you and your environment will either cause the seeds of greatness to grow in you or will cause the weeds of failure to sprout up within you.

Someone said, “Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day until it becomes too strong to break.” I hasten to add, the threads comprise of thoughts, words, and deeds but we can break the cable of habit by cutting the thread one strand at a time.

We can safely say, we break the chains of habits no matter how strong or tightened it may be by changing our minds; one thought at a time which leads to behavioral change; one action at a time.

To kick-start the process of breaking bad habits you must:

• Identify or recognize the bad, negative or unproductive habits.

You can never change what you cannot confront and you cannot confront the issue you have not identified. To solve a problem you must know the problem you intend to solve.

To consistently grow your success you must recognize or identify those habits that limit your success growth. Bad habits could be endless but these are just a few of them:

• Gossiping
• Disorganization
• Cell phone addiction
• Socializing too much on the phone (aimless socialization).
• Being late for meetings and appointments
• Promiscuity
• Watching too much television
• Pornography
• Never finishing projects
• Overeating
• Alcoholism
• Drug addiction
• Telling habitual lies to misrepresent or deceive
• Short temper

Zig Ziglar encapsulates:

• Dr. Forest Tennant says that one out of every twelve people who take a casual drink will become an alcoholic. Are you sure you aren’t that one?

• Dr. Tennant says tobacco is the gateway drug for many people into a lifestyle of addictive and destructive drug use. Are you sure it won’t be for you?

• Would I want my behavior today to be the headlines in tomorrow’s newspaper?

• Would I want my parents to know my involvement with this practice?

• Do I plan on telling my spouse about my casual practice? If not, why not?

• Am I fooling myself into believing “This will never become a bad habit for me”?

–Zig Ziglar