Assignment

On

Life/Self-Management Strategies-Getting rid of Bad Habits

Submitted To: Mahmud Ullah

Associate Professor

Department of Marketing

University Of Dhaka

Submitted By: Aysha Noman

Roll-131

Section-A

Department of Marketing

University Of Dhaka
A habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. Every
person has a habit. From small, non dangerous, habits like biting nails or high pitched laughing, to
dangerous ones such as smoking, drinking, and reckless behavior. Habits can go un-noticed by
people because they vary in seriousness. Breaking habits varies greatly. It can be as simple as not
doing something in the morning, to stopping drugs and alcohol. People often pick up bad habits in
their younger years. Some habits people cannot control such as a twitch or an outburst. But most
of the habits people are able to overcome and control.

Let’s face the truth, all of us have our own bad habits. That bad habit may be a petty thing but if
it exceeds a limit it becomes a problem for us. It becomes a habit and cannot even break it easily.
We develop various types of bad habits at different stages in our life which we love doing and
cannot break them even if we want and when we realize the bad effects of it, it had already
become an addiction.

So we are given a task by our respectable teacher to identify one of our severe bad habit and get
rid of that following a proper strategy so that we can use it every time we grow a bad habit.

I listed some of my bad habits on the basis of severity in the time frame that we were given and I
realized that this thing has caused a barrier in my self-development. It cannot be termed as a bad
habit rather a barrier. So the barrier that I had analyzed is that my introvert characteristic. My
problem is so much severe that it cannot be called as a characteristic rather it has become a
phobia for me. I hardly talked with people whom I barely knew. I practiced this since my
childhood and it was fine upto then but it started to get severe when I went to college and then
university. These were the places where we get to meet various type of people and from various
culture, background which I believe gives us the picture of different perspective of life. I have
seen life from my own perspective till now. I used to search for my only friend everywhere I
used to go and hence when I started to go to my university it was the hardest to survive. I got
depressed and couldn’t even my studies properly which eventually affected my result.
Adventures wouldn’t interest me that much; hangouts were not that fascinating for me. I just
wanted to come back home as early as the classes ends. I wouldn’t even participate in
competitions since I had to interact with a lot of people which I didn’t like and it effected in my
extra curriculum activities also. So when our teacher told us to find one of our bad habits and
work on it, this is the one that came to my mind. Removing a bad habit isn’t that easy and it’s
even worse when it’s practiced for a long time. I tried my best to establish a strategy for reducing
the behavior. Although it will take a long time but at least I tried to practice following guidelines,
goals and strategies. I was motivated by my teacher also who was a chain smoker once and got
determined to change the habit with the help of his friend. This story also helped me to take an
attempt to change my anti-social habit. It might not be a bad habit for everyone but it is for me
since it refrained me from self-developing. I took attempts – even starting from a venture by my
own self since it would require me to communicate with a lot of people.
Most of the time, bad habits are simply a way of dealing with stress and boredom. Everything
from biting nails to overspending on a shopping spree to drinking every weekend to wasting time
on the internet can be a simple response to stress and boredom. But it doesn't have to be that
way. You can teach yourself new and healthy ways to deal with stress and boredom, which you
can then substitute in place of your bad habits. Of course, sometimes the stress or boredom that
is on the surface is actually caused by deeper issues. These issues can be tough to think about,
but if you're serious about making changes then you have to be honest with yourself. Are there
certain beliefs or reasons that are behind the bad habits? Is there something deeper — a fear, an
event, or a limiting belief — that is causing you to hold on to something that is bad for you?
Recognizing the causes of your bad habits is crucial to overcoming them.

Now I will be discussing about the strategy that I have followed to remove the bad habit.

Took complete responsibility for my actions- I took the responsibility for my own actions
solely upon myself. It would have been more difficult if I had blamed someone else then I
wouldn’t have tried. I took the decision of not taking a step which was very wrong from my part.
Whether I wanted to or not, I owned up my decisions at some point.
 Realizing that I am completely responsible for my actions left me overwhelmed at first. I
began to realize that each of my actions has repercussions, and that those repercussions
are wildly different than the ones I may have imagined when I had acted in the first place.
 But ultimately, being completely responsible for my own actions is empowering. Since I
am the maker of my own destiny. Within certain norms, no one else can tell me what to
do. Taking full responsibility for my own actions give me freedom. I began to understand
how habits can be metaphorical chains, and how breaking them can set me free.
 Started scrutinizing the consequences and rewards of my habits. Made a
simple pros and cons list of what my habit is giving me. I tried to be viciously,
unsparingly honest with myself. for example, in my case
 Pros:
 Feeling of calmness and energy
 Short-term stress
 Opportunity for doing my things timely
 Helps me feel at my own comfort zone
 Cons:
 Numerous and damaging long-term self-development process
 Facing hard time in adjusting to new places
 Lack of good friends
 No helping hand when needed- be it work or personal.
Begin to weigh the short-term rewards with the long-term consequences. Usually, we justify
indulging in a habit we know is bad because we value the short-term rewards disproportionately
over the long-term effects. And that's because we can't cthe long-term effects — they're far off in
the future, hard to judge, sometimes uncertain. It's much easier to see and feel the short-term
benefits.
 For example, maybe being with myself for a longer period of time gives me a better
understanding of myself and giving pleasure at that moment but situation may not be the
same. I might had to go to abroad and do my higher studies and there I have to
communicate with a lot, if I don’t practice it from the beginning I won’t be able to meet
the purpose of going there and fail in accomplishing my dreams. It’s very necessary to
communicate while living abroad since I need to survive in that situation so eventually I
am placing my future at stake.

Stick to breaking one habit at a time – When I felt empowered by making my own decision I
intended to bust all my bad behaviors but putting effort on all at a time will actually give no
result. I stick to improve one habit at a time. It's better to take your time and break one for good
than to rush through the process and end up getting rid of none of my bad habits.

Not taking minor setbacks too seriously- I fell off my determination a lot of time but I didn’t
give up. I pulled myself right back up and get back on track. Minor setbacks will happen and I
accepted it then learnt from my setbacks and tried to ensure that they won't happen again.
Started by tracking when I like to be lonely- I kept a journal handy and jotted down every time
I felt uncomfortable talking with people and the reasons why. I paid attention to the triggers I
noticed. For example- I have noticed I felt uncomfortable being around people when people try
to be too friendly at the first meet.
I really wanted to recover from being anti-social, so I started talking with people I barely knew
and tried to find our common interests and hobbies so that I didn’t have to feel awkward
communicating. It was difficult at the beginning and was tempting but I was determined so had
to do it.

Stopped putting myself in situations where triggers flourish- I started to keep myself busy
and around people. I started doing things that I used to like and hence I wouldn’t be bored and
kept myself happy and content.

Tried to replace bad habit with a healthy habit. Many longtime smokers, for example, kick
their habit by substituting chewing gum for cigarettes whenever the urge hits. And for good
reason: Scientists have discovered that people who eat more produce have fewer cigarettes over
the course of a day and end up having an easier time quitting.
When I am angry, I try to scream loud and get that vent out of myself instead of locking up in a
room. When I feel happy I try to share with people and even when I am sad, I try to express my
insecurities with my close people and even useless talks to be comfortable to talk.

Conditioning myself to not enjoy the bad habit. The following technique is little like Pavlov's
dog experiment in that it involves associating a habit with a negative emotion or physical
stimulus. Whenever I catch myself not enjoying get together, I started to talk aloud and telling
funny stories to attract people towards me.

Finding better alternatives that meet the same reward. Bad habits give us a reward. We may
not fully understand the reward that they give us, but they do. I tried to pinpoint the reward that I
get from my bad habit and then fond a better way to achieve the same reward.

 Smokers, for example, often find that E-cigarettes or nicotine gum do the trick. So I
tried to reward myself with a cup of tea with the person I am talking since I love tea. In
that way I enjoy both spending time as well as my tea. I also reward myself with my
favorite shows and discuss with the person next to me. In this I get close to that person
more and get to enjoy my favorite show at the same time.

Tried making a commitment to someone else- I tried to make a commitment to my friends that
wherever I go I will make at least 3 friends whom I will talk and share my thoughts and
understand their perspective as well. So after making this commitment wherever I went it was
challenge for me to make friends through offline and also online and knowing them in such a
short time. Making a commitment to someone else puts a healthy dimension of pressure and
urgency on our success.

Broke my timeline into manageable chunks- I set my timeline and goal. I used to check time
to time whether I have improved or not. If I see that I haven’t met my goal then I used to set a
new timeline and worked on that. It was sometimes tiring and demotivating but then again I tried
to push myself up and set everyday goals and tick on my diary.

Learn how to stop being anti-social- I learned to stop being anti-social by:

 Making more friends

 Starting a conversation
 Taking the first attempt
 Skipped the idea of what people think about me
 Reduced social media from everyday life as much as possible
 Starting visiting places and even in places where I knew no one
 Started to enjoy my life just the way it was and not thinking about a perfect one
 Stopped being lonely- I stopped being lonely and started doing things that I loved doing such as
–paintings, graphics because otherwise I would have been lonely and eventually sad. I used to
become frustrated since I wouldn’t share my worries with anyone else. This depression made me
awake all night long doing nothing and eventually health problems. These were the reasons why
I become so determined in removing this habit of mine.

I stopped procrastinating- Procrastination can become an addiction for a whole set of people,

especially those who've had success procrastinating in the past. The truth is that you get out of
work fed up of what you did dividing your work with the hardest part first will better motivate
you and help you overcome this habit. So that’s why I started to go to my rooftop to meet people
regularly

Stopped being with nagging people- I stopped hanging with people who were nagging since
they were the main demotivators and I wanted to remove all the demotivators from my part. I
talked with everyone but spent time more with people I find good as a human being and would
motivate me in my attempts and works. This has helped a lot in the process of changing my
habit.

Stopped being naggy- Apart from avoiding nagging people, I tried to become more resilient and
more friendly and understanding. It was tough since I never tried to understand from others
perspective and consider that the opposite one will start the conversation but I was only
depending on others for removing my insecurity which was incorrect from my part.
1.

Stopped being too much on social media- I realized that social media is an illusion. The sooner
people realizes it, the easier it gets. It showcases people as the perfect version of themselves
which is not correct. It makes communication easy but makes people anti-social. I realized that I
am more comfortable in chatting rather than talking in person, which affected me and when I am
being told to express my opinion I preferred writing them then saying them. I also felt shy
expressing my opinion. The reason of this is the rigidness. So I tried to see the true face of
people beyond the social media.

Get over compulsive lying- I try to be honest with myself even if I don’t feel like doing
something. I try to convince that I might get over this block soon and get on track.
Changed my environment- Research suggests that sometimes our environments can cue us to
perform certain behaviors, even if we're actively trying to stop. Breaking a habit, then, is partially
a matter of reducing situational triggers until we can develop new ways of dealing with them.

 Novel situations promote more use of the parts of your brain that are geared toward
consciously making decisions, rather than slipping into automatic behavior patterns.
 A good way to avoid bad habits is to find a way to change the scenery and see if my bad
habit becomes less tempting. Subtle changes to the environment can make a habit less rote
and forces mind to reassess what's happening.
 Forge relationships with people who support my desired behavior. I didn't need to ditch
my old friends entirely, but finding some new ones who live the way I want to can help
minimize triggers.
 Went to vacation. One of the most effective ways to break old habits is put yourself in a
completely new situation for a while, and develop new, healthier habits that can then
transplant into normal life.

Setting role model: I set role models such as Ayman Sadiq who can speak confidently in front
of people without hesitation. This has helped me following his instructions and doing things that
he does, I tried to follow his instructions as much as I could. The guidelines were easy but it
needed patience and determination. So I tried to recall my another motivating stiry from my
teachers life and implement.

Finally I would say that it was not easy for me to change something that I had grown up with and
practiced throughout my whole life but the little bit of progress that I have made is because of the
determination and my willingness. I surrounded myself with a positive environment which
helped me to change my behavior and I am trying to continue the effort to improve this even
more.