How to Break Bad Habits and Improve Your Life

The self-improvement industry takes in about $9.6 billion in sales each year. That includes books, CDs/DVDs, audiobooks, infomercials, motivational-speaking events, public seminars, workshops, retreats, webinars, holistic institutes, personal coaching, websites, Internet courses, training organizations, and more. But can a self-help book or seminar really make you happier, wealthier, or more successful?

According to the industry experts, yes. However, you cannot simply read a book and expect major change. You have to be willing to help yourself before they can help put you on the path to success.

The reason most folks fail is because they don’t have a clue about what it takes to incorporate fundamental changes into their routines or behaviors. As anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking or lose weight knows, drastic changes are often accompanied by unexpected stresses and anxieties.

Take Small Steps

Dr. John C. Norcross is co-author of the Authoritative Guide to Self-help Resources in Mental Health; he and his colleagues have spent decades studying how people change behaviors successfully on their own. Dr. Norcross advises taking small steps and not expecting success the first time around.

“The rule rather than the exception is to slip and relapse,” counsels Dr. Norcross. Mistakes are natural. Those who adopt an all-or-nothing attitude will impede the progress toward the ultimate aim – termination, when the self-help goal is fully realized.

Sales legend and one of the nation’s top how-to sales trainers Tom Hopkins lives by 12 words and 12 words alone: “I must do the most productive thing possible at every given moment.” He advises audiences everywhere to do the same. The trick is to think of these words as they apply to every area of life.

“If you think about those words, we’re not talking just work, because human beings must keep all areas of their life not only in balance, but together,” explains Hopkins in an interview with Selling Power Editors. “So the most productive thing possible at this moment may be doing something for my children, taking care of a challenge I might have with my spouse, or taking time off to get reenergized. So the most productive thing possible at every given moment is dictated by your goals and the most important priorities in your life.”

Practice Discipline

Reaching goals – whether personal or professional – requires commitment and perseverance. Hopkins maintains that, on average, behavior-altering changes take 21 days. “I consider the most critical word for self-improvement to be ‘discipline,’” says Hopkins. “Putting in longer hours of commitment to any job is a discipline. Discipline is not looking for the pleasures of the day, but looking for how you can achieve your goals through quality activities.” From breaking a bad habit like smoking to incorporating a new daily habit like getting up an hour earlier each morning, 21 days of concentrated commitment can turn a new activity into a way of life.

“Research shows that most motivational seminars do not have lasting power,” observes Dr. Norcross. “By contrast, taking material from a book, movie, Internet site or seminar and working it through and integrating it into a lifestyle makes a big difference. But someone who thinks that six hours of listening to inspirational talks will reinvent their lives is seriously mistaken. It’s 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration – what counts is what one does upon leaving the seminar or closing the book.”