Every person has good and bad habits, so unless you think you are perfect, you must have some bad habits at some point of your life, if not all of your life. There are three steps I think will help to deal with bad habits.

Acknowledge its existence

You cannot break a bad habit if you don’t recognize its existence. It is important to know that there are Habits that can be seen by others and habits that can’t be seen or feel by others. The first type is the actions that are noticed by people around you such as smoking, lying, and other bad habits.

The other type is the harder type to recognize, it’s what’s inside you, and it’s what no one else can see or feel but you. Recognizing this deep and personal bad habit is hard because they are unseen and many of them are unnoticed by the individual himself. it is hard to notice their existence because the person is used to them. Such feelings and habits have existed within that individual for a long period of time. They are used to it to the point where it is very normal and natural for them to act that way of feel this way. This type includes things such as jealousy, greedy, not wishing good for others or not wishing them happiness. The list is long but I hope you get my point.

No person can break a bad habit unless they acknowledge it is a habit and it is bad. If someone don’t admit those two parts then they are still in need to acknowledge that habit’s existence.

Understand the reasons behind its existence (when did it start, why, for how long?)

It might be the environment you lived in, the neighborhood you grew up in, or the role models in your life. Every human being was born ignorant and his knowledge is received by many means like parents and people around us. To deal with a bad habit we have to understand how we adopted it in the first place. Understanding such thing will help to control it and stop it.

Control it and stop it.

It is hard to stop a bad habit right away especially if you have been doing it for a long period of time. Therefore, a gradual process can be helpful. A clinical psychologist , Patricia Farrell, commented:

“The more you do it, the more difficult it is to get rid of it, but every single bad habit can be broken”

It is impossible to control and stop a bad habit if you didn’t acknowledge its existence or if you didn’t understand the reasons behind that existence. Moreover, understanding what are the benefits you will receive once you stop such habit.

Nothing can slow down or even block personal growth like bad habits. Knowing what bad habits we have and dealing with them can enhance personal growth and the quality of our life.

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