Why We Fear Ending Destructive Habits (Try this Experiment)

a post by Mike Bundrant for the NLP Discovewries blog [via World of Psychology]



Are we really afraid to end bad habits? Here’s how to know.

Try this simple thought experiment:

1. Think of your bad habit. It could be anything. Biting your nails, smoking, raging, spending too much money, overeating, dating the wrong people; you name it.
2. Say to yourself, with firmness and a matter-of-fact tone, the following:

I will never (insert bad habit) again. For as long as I live, I will simply abstain from (insert bad habit).

Notice what happens next. If you have a destructive habit that you’ve tried in vain to quit – and if you declared with firmness to yourself that you will NEVER do it again, the most common emotion that arises is fear (in my experience).

A few people experience relief – as if they never realized that they could just quit their bad habit. Like an affirmation, the statement just hits home.

Some people laugh at themselves after making this statement. Yeah, right, like I’ll never do again. And Mickey Mouse is real, too!

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