Poor habits lead to poor living, making you a victim of your own behavior patterns. If you want to curb a routine that hurts your health or finances, you’ve got to identify your triggers and vulnerabilities and position yourself to snap out of your tendencies.

Pick the Brain offers a step-by-step guide for habit-breaking. Here are some tricks from the post:

* Satisfy cravings with harmless rewards. When you do things you know are negative, it may be to receive some sort of short-term positive feeling. Try to substitute your indulgence with something less harmful to see if it satisfies your craving.

* Break down timing and circumstances that make you weak. Next time you feel like indulging in your habit, go ahead and do it but make a note of the time, your location, who you’re with and other circumstantial details. The next day, try to avoid falling into a similar situation that weakens your defenses and isolate what environmental factors make you buckle.

* Always have a plan. Formulate ways to decrease your odds of succumbing to a poor choice. And when you fail, don’t let yourself be discouraged. Instead, tinker with your plan and repeat the process until you find success.

5 Ways To Change A Habit [Pick the Brain]

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