On average, one takes 66 days to transform an activity into a habit. However, it’s easy and very natural to get accustomed to a bad habit faster than a good one. And equally hard to break one. One might be still living in the dark concerning the consequences of the habits they are accustomed to every day, but in the long term, your habits regardless of their intensity will have serious ramifications in the future, especially when we are concerned with unhealthy habits. 

With that said, if you’re looking forward to breaking unhealthy habits, this article will help you to do it step-by-step. However, before doing that, let’s enumerate some of the most common bad habits that men fall into. 

5 Most Common Unhealthy Habits that Men Should Stop

Below is the list of unhealthy habits:

• Negative thinking:

More often than not, overthinking and negative thinking wear you down mentally as well as physically. It squeezes out your zest for life and narrows down your horizon. It can be a symptom or a cause of depression and anxiety. Therefore, it’s important to get professional aid as soon as possible. In addition to that, it’s essential to surround yourself with a supportive friend circle, self-encouragement and self-affirmations will certainly take you a long way. 

• Substance abuse:

Consuming alcohol, drugs or smoking is often perceived as a cool thing to do. But in reality, it’s the most uncool thing for your body which deteriorates your health once you get addicted to it. Unhealthy habits besides smoking, such as excessive alcohol consumption can result in serious diseases such as liver cirrhosis, ulcers and high blood pressure. 

One way to get rid of this habit is to gradually abstain from consumption. For instance, if you’re consuming three cigarettes every day, make it two the next. Continue doing it for a week or so and then make it one. In this way, you’ll be able to successfully rid yourself of this unhealthy habit. 

• Social media addiction:

In this increasingly technological world, which keeps on evolving based on the new technological discoveries, it’s quite implausible to not stay connected with the rest of the world through social media. This is especially true when the whole world is locked behind closed doors. 

Be that as it may, this necessity of staying socially connected shouldn’t pose a problem to your health. Unfortunately, it does and is quite beyond imagination. Social media addiction has become a real deal in the past decade and it negatively impacts your mental as well as physical health. 

According to science, addiction to gadgets and things associated with them, can disrupt the melatonin levels in your body and harm your sleep cycle. Therefore, it’s always advisable to switch off your devices before you sleep or at least avoid using them one hour before you fall asleep. 

• Procrastinating:

Oh, here’s our dear old friend procrastinating staring at our face again! Contrary to common beliefs, procrastination is often catalysed by a lack of self-confidence. It is partly caused by the perfectionist mindset and apathy, but majorly, it’s the lack of self-confidence which escalates it. 

Under such circumstances, your willpower and repetition of self-affirmations will only get you through. Indeed, saying to believe in yourself and believing are two very different things. But you gotta start somewhere, man! Take the first small step. It’s okay if you come back to square one, but it’s actually not square one. You have some experience and gained something with that first step. 

• Nail-biting:

Nail-biting is one of the most common unhealthy habits that almost every individual has fallen into, before a great event. You might think what’s harmful in biting nails? Well, a lot of things actually. It can increase your susceptibility to suffering from cold, fever and other infections. In addition, it is also a telling sign of an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The only way to stop it is to muster enough willpower and courage to break your nails to the point that it’s impossible to chew them. 

How To Break Routine of Unhealthy Habits

Knowing that something you’re doing is an unhealthy habit is not quite enough to break it. You need something equally enticing on the other end that will compel you to stop whatever you’re doing. For instance, you know that smoking is bad. But what are your plans for dealing with it? You’ll still be compelled to take a drag in every smoke break. So, to stop this habit once and for all, you must develop an equally enticing distraction that is healthy for you. 

One way to do this is to identify the benefits of not doing something. For instance, you can consider the below-mentioned benefits to strengthen your willpower:

• Diseases caused by unhealthy habits are reduced
• Taking the first step to breaking the bad habit boosts your self-confidence and self-esteem
• Breaking unhealthy habits stimulates your sleep, which in turn, powers you with more energy and zest. Hence, your productivity is significantly increased

Taking any decision in life, be it small or big, is bound to feel overwhelming. When it comes to breaking a habit, you’re voluntarily inviting a huge change in your life, implying that your journey will be tough. But, only during such circumstances, will you be able to unravel your truest self and test yourself. 

However, this process can be made easier by magnifying your strengths and positive qualities. For example, you can ask yourself to list down ten good things about yourself. Regardless of its relation with the bad habit or not, just list down ten strengths about you and focus on them throughout your journey. Next, surround yourself with people who’ll support you in this journey. More often than not, we bestow trust on people whom we think have the best interests in our hearts, but only during such times do we discover who they are and what they think about us. So, this path will not only help you strip off the bad habit but a plethora of things. 

These are some of the things that you can consider while breaking bad habits. Knowing that unhealthy habits cause diseases is not enough. Get something more concrete on the other end and then challenge your willpower. 

Also Read: 5 Healthy Habits To Lead The Productive Life