How to get the good habits

Yesterday I've seen the wonderful movie "The boat that rocked" about pirate radio stations which broad casted rock and pop music in 60ths in Great Britain.

The governors were trying to close them. However, the more they were trying, the more pirates become popular. As a result there are currently hundreds of radio stations in Great Britain which broadcast rock and pop 24 hours per day.

At the middle of the movie I had the idea: "The more we forbid something, the more this something evolve". What children do when parents forbid them to play games instead of doing lessons? Right, they play more! What if someone tells to child "not to go to that secret room"? Beleive me, the child will soon know what is hidden in behind the door to the secret room.

The same is with our bad habits. Let's take the person who strives eat less. How he tries? Corect, he tells by himself: "I should eat less". The more he tells that, he more he wants eating more and more, because he is thinking about the food all the time.

Not what if that person instead of thinking about food, begins thinking about fitness or playing with children or doing business? You see, now that person is concentrated on other things. There is no place to food in his thoughts. So, if he doesn't think about the food, why he should eat more? Actually, I think he will eat less without any extra effort.

Personally I have the bad habit of eating many chocolates and candies. I consider it a bad habit because my overall health drops because of the large amounts of caffeine contained in chocolate, not to mention of paying extra money for sweeties. When I was trying to stop eating much chocolate by saying to myself: "I should eat less chocolate", I could hold on for 4-5 day, maybe a week. For all this time I was thinking about the chocolate, restraining myself.

When at the end of the week I went to some party or to my parents, my desire blasted and I could eat several bricks of chocolates and a bunch of candies in addition.

Now I'll run into completely another strategy: I'll focus not at forbidding the chocolate, but at eating of healthy food, such as fruits and vegetables. I'll also put accents on gains I'll get from eating the healthy food, like good mood and strong health.

And each time of choosing between candy and fruit I plan to imagine myself in 5 years, running along some ocean cost in Hawaii, looking so strong and feeling so great, understanding that all this become possible thanks to my choice...5 years ago.

In the following post I'll tell  you about crucial moment which happens when you switch to the new habit: The crucial moment of getting the new habit