Hi! My name is Marni and I’m writing this guest post. You can find my lifestyle blog, That Blue Flower at http://thatblueflower.com

We all want to be successful and reach our goals. We want to be happy with our lives and ourselves, but it’s not always possible. There may be monetary reasons keeping you from your ultimate goal, or maybe you have tried time and time again, without success. Or maybe you have a few bad habits that keep you from being productive and focused.

Today I want to talk about breaking Bad Habits and how you can form new habits to make your life so much better.

My own experiences

All of us have bad habits, even the most perfect and successful people. It’s part of being human. I want to share some of my former bad habits and how I managed to turn it around.

Biting my nails

Since I was a little girl, I chewed my nails. I know there are a lot of people who do it. My parents tried EVERYTHING to get me to stop, but with no success. It never really bothered me, until I became a teenager and the girls around me would wear Nail polish for prom and I couldn’t because my nails were so short and ugly.

I realized that I had to make a conscious decision to stop biting my nails. It worked for a while. I had the most beautiful nails that I could paint with nail polish, but after a while, it started up again. You see, I had not completely gotten rid of this bad habit. It takes longer than you think.

It would get especially bad whenever we were writing exams in school. It caused me a lot of stress because of the pressure from my parents to do well.

So how did I turn it around? I worked harder so I had less stress during exams and I stopped picking at my nails all the time. It took me a while to break this habit that I had for well over 10 years, but I managed to do it. Now I feel so much better about myself and how I care for my body.

Procrastination

Another example is procrastination. I actually did an entire post on my blog about how to stop procrastinating. This is something that I really struggled with in my teenage years. Because of my parents, I had to be a straight-A student since my first exams in middle school. I was constantly studying and having to work when my friends were out having fun.

I’m also a major perfectionist and when I got to high school, I started to procrastinate on doing my projects and studying because I was sick of studying but also afraid that I would not be able to do it perfectly. It was an evil cycle. I can’t really explain what my reasoning was, just that I always found something else to do other than my work. I still did well enough for my parents to not realize what I was (or wasn’t) doing, so this was part of the problem. I convinced myself that I did not need to study and I could do my projects the night before they were due.

During my senior year of high school, I realized that I was not going to keep my parents happy if I didn’t put enough time into my work. So I started working again. Bit by bit I was able to get rid of the habit over the course of a few months. It really takes that long and it takes dedication. Only you can flip the switch in your head 21 days is all it takes.

I learned that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. If you focus on doing something for 21 days straight, it will become part of your routine and it will come automatically. This is good news. If there’s some change you want in your lifestyle, you need less than a month to make that change and integrate it completely.

Just remember that you need to keep it up after the 21 days. Nothing will just happen by itself.

60 days to change your life

It takes a long time to break a habit. Especially if you’ve been doing it for a few years. I would say that 60 days is a good number to work with. If you manage to keep from doing the bad habit for 2 months while you implement a new, good habit during that time, you’ll be rid of it for good.

Start right now, don’t wait

New Year’s is coming up, so I bet you’re thinking of starting your new habit plan in the new year. Don’t do it. Unfortunately, the statistics are not in your favor. The chances of you going through with your new resolution, are slim.

The reason why we struggle so much to make a change is that we decide to postpone it until next week and the week thereafter. The only way to do it is by starting at this very moment.

Get motivational support

While you’re thinking of a new habit to replace the bad one, talk to someone about it. Tell them about your plan. It really helps to have the support of other people. Write it down and put it on your wall, or put up some motivational messages all over the house. Do whatever it takes to constantly remind yourself that you’re making your life better.

You can do it!

I promise you can do this. It’s all in your head. You can make this change and reach your ideal lifestyle.

If you liked this post you can read more on Marni’s blog at thatblueflower.com.