Why It Is Hard To Break Bad Habits?

The New Year is coming.  The time for making New Year's Resolutions is rapidly approaching with excitement and trepidation.

We know it's time to Break Bad Habits, but, often times, our confidence and hope have been shattered by past failure and disappointment.

Because of the bad consequences associated with bad habits, we suck in our gut, take a deep breath and commit ourselves to Breaking Bad Habits.

Jeanna Bryer of Fox News.com wrote a very relevant article "Why It's so Hard to Break Bad Habits".

Scientists have come up with a host of reasons why it is hard to Break Bad Habits. Jeanna Bryer identified five reasons:

"Innate human defiance.

Need for social acceptance.

Inability to truly understand the nature of the risk.

Individualistic view of the world and the ability to rationalize unhealthy habits.

Genetic predisposition to addiction."

Reasons 1 through 4 are usually are not addressed in most programs for Breaking Bad Habits.  In my last blog 50 Quotations on Courage, I quoted Thomas Szasz: "Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence". 

Clear thinking not only involves courage to change because of the intellectual awareness of disastrous consequences from Bad Habits. 

Clear thinking is dependent upon and only possible when there is emotional acceptance of the need for Breaking Bad Habits and "innate human defiance" is not triggered by the attempt to successfully Break the Bad Habit.

To Break a Bad Habit, you must reduce "innate human defiance" or turn "innate human defiance" into an ally!

Innate or learned human defiance cannot be ignored and won't go away.  Innate and learned human defiance will generate denial, rationalization and sabotaging of our efforts, even when our goals are healthy and success is necessary for our well-being. 

Achieving your goal will be made more difficult and relapse is likely to follow, if you have not reduced or transformed your "innate human defiance" and learned human defiance.  Why Resolutions and Willpower Fail is a relevant blog from last year regarding the power of "innate human defiance". 

I believe not recognizing, acknowledging and transforming human defiance is a major factor why most attempts for Breaking Bad Habits fail.  Last year I reported on the 29th of December in a blog entitled, New Year's Resolutions, that 86% of people fail to keep their Resolutions through the month of February.

You do not have to be in the 86% of failures this year.  Tomorrow I will review recent blogs on Breaking Bad Habits.  I also will be talking more about taming our "innate human defiance".

Remember, We Live within the Environment Created by Our Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

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