I ate Kentucky Fried Chicken twice when I was younger and threw up immediately afterwards both times. I always joked that my body didn’t agree with one of the 11 herbs and spices. I never tried it again and have never been tempted to. I know KFC is bad for me, so it’s not an option.
We often do things that aren’t good for us, sometimes repeatedly. Why don’t we stop? For me, eating at KFC was easy to stop. I know the pattern – eat KFC, throw up. I had a physical reaction that I didn’t want to go through again. But, we often put ourselves in the same emotional patterns. We can’t stop the cycle for some reason.
If you threw up every time you made a bad decision, I guarantee you that you wouldn’t make the same mistake again. The pattern would be broken. But, because the pain isn’t physical we’ll continue to do what we always do.
Here are 3 ways to stop doing things that aren’t good for you:
1) Act as if your life depended on your decision to stop. I remember a story my grandpa used to tell about how he decided to stop smoking and drinking. He said he went in for a checkup and the doctor told him to quit or he’d die. My grandpa quit that day and didn’t have a cigarette or drop of alcohol for the remaining 25 plus years of his life.
If you think something will kill you, you’ll think about it differently. If you’re scared enough, you’ll stop.
2) Take decision-making away from yourself. We often have too much time and too many choices to make good decisions. Often, we let our emotions control our lives and we end up making poor decisions. There’s a reason why those “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets are so popular. It takes the decision away from you and gives it to Jesus.
If you follow a plan or path set up by a coach, mentor, or hero, you’ll make decisions based on what they’d do. Plan so there’s no room for deviation. We often suffer from self-inflicted anxiety because we put ourselves in the same bad situations. When we’re confronted with a situation we panic and think, “What should I do?” Follow some else’s plan and you’ll be amazed how that helps you.
3) Trust your gut. You know deep down when something is wrong. You sense it. Later you’ll say to yourself, “I knew it.” Instead of waiting until after the fact, realize what your senses are telling you in the moment they’re kicking in. When you sense something, walk away. It’s not over-reacting when you feel uneasy, it’s your body telling you to watch out based on experience. Listen to it.
Has anything else worked for you? How long did it take for you to give up something bad? It’s not easy, find someone to be a cheerleader. Better yet, be a cheerleader for someone else. Helping them may just end up helping you.
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