Breaking bad habits can be really difficult – much harder than you would think. Whenever I try to break bad habits, I am always surprised by how difficult it is. Whatever the bad habit is – be it smoking, sleeping in too late, eating fatty food – it seems like it should be pretty easy to do away with. When you visualize it, you imagine yourself stopping right away and never doing the habit again.

In reality, however, it doesn’t really work out this way for most of us. When most people are breaking bad habits, they have a long period of relapse before they can actually stop doing whatever they want to stop. The thing that you have to understand is that most bad habits serve some psychological function. People who overeat, for example, usually do it as a way to compensate for feelings of inferiority, anxiety, or some other issue. The same thing goes for smoking, drinking, and many other habits. Then again, there are also those bad habits that are simply too enjoyable to be easy to break. Who doesn’t like having a nice desert after dinner? Who doesn’t like sleeping in instead of getting straight to work. These are just some of the obstacles that you have to face when breaking bad habits.

It may seem kind of lame, but when breaking bad habits you have to really take it one day at a time. Don’t start never smoking again, simply decide to not smoke today. Make the same resolution every day, every hour, or even every minute if you have to. It may take tremendous amount of work, but eventually you will persevere. The key is to not think ahead when you are changing something. Just think of the moment and you will succeed. If you plan ahead, the task of breaking bad habits may seem insurmountable. If you only think about the current minute, however, it is comparatively easy.

Whenever I am trying to break a bad habit, I would start off by getting up early and sitting some meditation. This is a great way to clear your mind before the stresses of the day begin in earnest. Breaking bad habits is not something you can do at night. It’s hard to get a realistic perspective when you’re going to sleep, and anyway you don’t really want to be thinking about things that could stress you out. If you want to get a fresh start, get an early start!