Bad Habits: Persistent Offenders

A regular survey would name the following bad habits as the most persistent offenders:

• smoking
• drinking too much (alcoholism)
• procrastinating
• over-eating,
• chronic lateness
• compulsive gambling
• negative thinking, and
• overspending.

We will be discussing these in greater detail in the next chapters.

Of course, the list of bad habits can go on to infinity. Anything that extends to misuse, detriment, addiction and abuse can fall under this category.

They include cursing or blurting out dirty words, whining, gossiping, nail biting, lying, spitting in public, taking too many medications (characteristic of a hypochondriac), name dropping, interrupting, kissing and telling, etc. Addiction to illegal substances also makes the list, but its gravity requires an entirely new discussion altogether.

If you think you have all the above bad habits and more, it's not the end of the world.

There also are habits that are good. Examples, of good habits are saying 'Thank You' when we receive something or somebody does nice things for us, keeping to an exercise routine, drinking at least eight glasses of water a day, and wishing the doorman a good day. Good habits do not have to be monumental.

If we wish to eliminate our bad habits, we need to concentrate on the good that we do and place them at the forefront of our lives.

Keeping a positive and disciplined attitude toward replacing the bad with the good requires some effort, especially when we've become so accustomed to the bad, but doing so would bring greater benefits for the longer term.