Quitting an old habit or forming a new habit is fairly simple when it comes to the steps needed: Find your trigger and do a new habit at that trigger over and over. Remind yourself to do it. Make it rewarding.
For example, if you are triggered to snack on junk food every time you feel bored or lonely, call a friend to chat instead, or go outside and work on a project you enjoy.
The simplicity is deceptive, though: There are some physical urges and even more mental habits that keep us stuck in our old patterns.
The physical urges are not so hard: If you stay away from an old habit (such as cigarettes) for a week, the urges die down. It’s the mental habits that trip us up. We have a way of seeing ourselves—include how we see our old habits, such as smoking, eating a certain way, and so on. As a result, we form a bunch of mental habits that keep us stuck in that version of ourselves….