Golden Rules For Continuing Good Habits and Quitting Bad Ones

A life of constant rest isn’t ideal, and here’s why…

Changes that seem small and unimportant at first, will compound and turn into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years. — James Clear, Atomic Habits

Based on the Atomic Habit book by James Clear, a restful life is not a great life. One of the biggest problems we face nowadays is resting more than we should. Most of us engage in one of these bad habits:

• Eating out or getting delivery at home instead of cooking.
• Sending clothes to dry cleaning instead of washing them yourself.
• Buying coffee instead of making it.
• Seeking knowledge from shallow short videos instead of reading books.
• We satisfy our intellectual curiosity by consuming digital information from social media instead of reading books or listening to lectures from scholars.
• … so many other examples of our laziness nowadays.

Clear mentions that our minds lean towards the easiest and most economically efficient solutions; this is how it is programmed. This is good in itself because when you do easy tasks, you’ll have more energy to do more things.

But, we have abused this quality so much that it has become something we want to learn how to fight now.

This is why we need to have a strategy to kill bad habits and embrace good ones. In the upcoming sections, let’s dive into how to stick to hard but good habits and how to avoid bad habits.

Golden Rules to Continue a Good Habit

1. Skip your mind’s resistance:

It’s important to be aware of the fact that your mind will resist when you want to start any physical effort. If you are aware of this, you become more patient with yourself and persist in doing the challenging tasks, you’ll notice that in a couple of weeks, it becomes no longer difficult.

For example, you can try and be more active by engaging in physical efforts like making your own coffee, cooking your own meals, and washing your own clothes. All of the above habits are clear, concise, small enough, and won’t take more than 2 minutes. James Clear mentions in the book that when a habit possesses all of these qualities, the chances of you actually doing them increase significantly.

Don’t listen to your mind, instead just do the job, give it enough time to practice, until it no longer feels heavy to do.

2. Make it small and easy:

To acquire a habit, break it down into small tasks. Make it easy to do, so it’s hard for your mind to resist.

Here’s an example I’ve personally tried. I aimed to improve my fitness and build some muscle without going to the gym. What I did was download an app that provided a brief 10–12 minutes exercise routine, which was manageable and concise.

Initially, it felt quite challenging and monotonous. To make it less boring, I decided to watch a video or listen to a podcast while exercising, and I scheduled it immediately after finishing my 9–5 work-from-home job.

So, as soon as I completed my work, I would stand up, open the app, and complete the 10-minute exercise routine. That’s how I incorporated it into my daily routine.

If there’s a habit you are struggling to make it easy enough and tried but failed. Let us know in the comment, and I can try and break it down with you, or maybe you’ll find others brainstorming with you!

3. Make it part of your identity

Our self-perception works a great deal on who we become.

If you identify as someone who does a particular habit, you’re more likely to continue it. For example, if you want to make exercise a habit, start thinking of yourself as a “healthy and active person” rather than someone who just occasionally works out.

4. Habit stacking

If you already have an established habit like drinking coffee when you wake up, you can easily stack another habit to do at the same time. For example, you can read a book while drinking your coffee or practice listening to a new language while drinking that coffee.

For me, it was doing 10 minutes of exercise while I listened to my favorite podcast.

5. Stay patient and be forgiving

Understand that habits take time to establish, and you need to be patient. If you miss a day or fall off track, don’t be too hard on yourself. Instead, refocus and continue the next day, week, month, or even year. Don’t just quit and forget all about it.

When I was trying to get into the habit of reading, I stopped for months and then came back to the same book. I picked it up again, and I am reading slowly but steadily.

Consistency over intensity: Focus on doing the habit consistently, even if it’s in smaller increments. If you aim to write a novel, but it feels overwhelming, commit to writing just one paragraph each day. Over time, this consistent effort will add up.

Golden Rules to Avoid Bad Habits

1. Cue, Craving, Response, Reward

Clearly introduces the concept of habit formation by breaking it down into four stages: cue, craving, response, and reward. To quit a bad habit, you need to understand and manipulate these stages. For example, if you want to quit the habit of sitting on your phone too much (bad habit), you can change the cue (keep your phone out of sight while working on anything), alter the craving (substitute with a healthier hobby), change the response (do a hobby instead of sitting on phone all day), and reward yourself (a hobby usually gives you a rewarding feeling of accomplishment).

There are endless hobbies to choose from, including sports, crafting, art, cooking, writing, and making money online. You just need to set your phone aside to have the opportunity to pick up a hobby.

2. Make it invisible

If you want to quit a bad habit, make it difficult to engage in that habit. For instance, if you’re trying to reduce mindless social media scrolling, delete social media apps from your phone. This makes the habit of checking social media less visible and accessible.

I deleted the Facebook app from my phone years ago. I used to check it daily, but now I rarely check Facebook.

3. Make it unattractive

Associate negative consequences with your bad habit to make it unattractive. For example, in the book, Clear mentions a story about a person who had a habit of smoking, and he made the habit unattractive by watching graphic videos of the health consequences of smoking.

4. Make it difficult

Increase the friction involved in engaging in a bad habit. If you’re trying to reduce the habit of snacking on junk food, store those snacks in a locked cupboard or on a high shelf, making it more difficult to access them.

I personally used to crave unhealthy snacks all the time. When I decided enough was enough, I stopped buying them as part of my grocery shopping, so when I craved them, I’d have to go and buy them, making the task much harder. I usually refrain from going to the grocery store just to get junk food.

5. Make it unsatisfying

Change the reward system of your bad habit to make it unsatisfying.

For example, I used to watch series after series, but then I stumbled upon an article about starting a side hustle through writing and how it can change your life. I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I never made it a public endeavor. So, I initiated a side hustle after work related to something I genuinely like. Now, I’ve quit watching Netflix series and canceled my subscription because I have something more rewarding to pursue. It provides me with a great sense of accomplishment.

I bet you’ll find something you’d like to do afterward that is rewarding for you too. All you need to do is closely examine what you truly enjoy and find rewarding.

6. Habit substitution

Replace a bad habit with a good one. In the book, Clear shares the example of a person who replaced the habit of smoking with the habit of chewing gum. This satisfies the oral fixation while eliminating the harmful habit.

I saw a close relative do this as well when he quit smoking, and it seemed to have worked for him too!

7. Identity transformation

Shift your self-identity to align with the desired habit change. For instance, if you want to quit being a procrastinator, when you catch yourself saying, “I’ll do it later,” go ahead and do it now.

Tim Denning wrote a good article about how to stop saying “I’ll do it later”.

Final Words

With the same habits, you’ll end up with the same results. But with better habits, anything is possible. — James Clear, Atomic habits

Your habits are the blueprint for your future, and by consciously shaping them, you have the power to transform your life.

Small changes in your daily routine can lead to remarkable outcomes over time. By consistently making choices that align with your desired goals and values, you pave the way for the extraordinary.

The journey towards success and personal growth begins with the deliberate cultivation of better habits. It’s not about immediate, radical change; it’s about the incremental improvements that accumulate into a better and more fulfilling version of yourself.

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