Quote Originally Posted by shane_k View Post
If you are wanting to stop bad habits there are couple of things that you can do.

1) You create a list of reasons why you want to quit that habit.
What will this habit cost you if you continue to do it?
Why do you want to quit? How will this benefit you? etc
Then whenever you are tempted to indulge in that habit you can pull out that list and reflect on it.

2) You can download an app like "streaks" for iphone (I don't know any apps like this for other phones) but what this app does is it keeps track of your habits. So if you are wanting to work out, each time you do complete a work out you mark it down in streaks and it will track your progress.

Some people use this app to have smoke free days, so if they were able to stop smoking for 3 days, and then they had a smoke on the fourth day, then they will have to start their streak all over again. It can be a fun way to track because then you start challenging yourself, saying things like, "Well I was able to do 5 days last time, let's do 6 days or 7 days this time.
So stopping a bad habit is a piece of cake - you just create a list of reasons and download an iPhone app...

I strongly disagree. Both methods focus on bad habit which is a bad habit. You should focus on good habits.

And in this "smoking" example it seems that the person trying to stop smoking periodically rewards herself/himself with a day of smoking. Very counterintuitive.