Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 307 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

7 Steps to Destroy Bad Habits

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 307 of our trek, and yesterday headed to new heights and discovered what it takes to live your dreams.  We discovered that we need to commit, plan, and act so that dreams will become reality as part of creating and living our legacy. Today we have some steep terrain to cover as we traverse the 7 steps to destroy bad habits.

Thank you so much for coming along with me each day as we explore and consume these “nuggets of wisdom.” These bits of wisdom help us to live a rich and satisfying life while creating a living legacy. While some of our daily treks are multi-part series, you can join us at any time and start along with us from that point on. If you would like to listen to any of the past episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal. You can also subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and Google Play, so each day’s trek will be downloaded to you automatically.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. On Thursday evening of this week, we were blessed to be able to attend a retirement dinner for a long time employee of one of our clients. Paula made a quilt for him and his wife, which we were able to present to them at the dinner. This employee made it a habit of showing up each day and working hard, and now he can enjoy the fruits of his labor. We form a close relationship with our clients and employees, which is how we like to conduct business.  We consider them friends, just as I consider you my friend as you come along on our Wisdom-Trek each day.

  

As we think about habits, I think we all understand that habits can be good or bad. In order to make room for good habits in our lives, we do need to rid ourselves of the bad habits, so let’ head out for today as we hike our own trail and discover the…

7 Steps to Destroy Bad Habits

Is it simple to destroy bad habits? Certainly not, sometimes it is very hard—but it’s far from impossible if you follow the right action plan.

Ok, let’s admit it, everybody has bad habits. Everybody. Now granted, some people have less than others and some people’s bad habits are more grating than those of others, but we all have them.

What is great is that we don’t have to continue in these habits. We’re all capable of change, so as Captain Picard of Star Trek would say, “Make it so.”

There are two kinds of bad habits: (1.) he ones you know you have but others may not notice and (2.) those you don’t know you have but everybody else is keenly aware of.

How do you get rid of a bad habit if you don’t know you have it? The answer is simple but hard…Ask somebody to be brutally honest with you. You might be afraid of being embarrassed, but would you rather everyone talk behind your back? Get up the courage and ask. Ask somebody who loves you and has your best interest in mind. Be gracious and don’t defend yourself. Just accept it and work on it.

What about the ones we know about? Those are the tough ones. Why? They must be tough if you know about them and yet you still have them. If they weren’t tough, they would be former bad habits.

How do you boot a bad habit out of your life? How can you destroy it and have victory over those bad habits? Here are 7 steps that must be a part of the plan:

1. You have to want them to go.

In truth, some people actually want their bad habits to stick around. So, the first thing is to go deep into the recesses of your heart and ask, “Do I really want to give this up?