The best way to break (end) a habit is to think. Habits are behaviors that we repeat automatically without thinking. So the way to break a habit is to think. The tendency is to focus on changing the behavior. You might find more success if instead you focus on how you think about your habit. There are three things to think about when you want to break a habit.

To break a habit think about when and how it occurs. Realize that most habits only occur under certain circumstance and specific situations. You could avoid the situation altogether, or if thats not an option, change what you bring into that situation. Look for the pattern and find a way to stop the pattern early on. As my grandfather would say, Dont climb the diving board if youre not planning on going in the water.

To break a habit think about what the habit does for you. Realize that most habits, even annoying and harmful ones, have or had at one time a very useful purpose. Whatever the behavior it had some positive benefit. Unfortunately many habits persist after the benefit is gone, or even after we develop better ways to gain that same benefit. In any case be sure before you eliminate a bad habit that you arent eliminating a useful benefit also.

To break a habit think about what you want instead. One of the best ways to break a habit is to replace it with something else. Breaking a habit can be difficult, so if youre going to go through the effort, why not make sure you end up with a new better habit. For example if you want to break the habit of eating a bowl of ice cream every night after dinner, why not replace it with going for a walk around the neighborhood? Youll double the health benefits of breaking your old habit by replacing it with a new one.

To think through these three things here are some question to ask your self:

When does this habit occur? What else has to happen first for this habit to occur? What triggers this habit? What do I gain from this habit? What will I lose if I give up this habit? Is there a better way to get it? What do I avoid by having this habit? Is there a better way to avoid it? What would I rather do? What habit do I want instead?

And the most powerful question: Why do I want to break this habit? Why is it important? If you have a strong reason why you want to break a habit its easier to figure out how.

To break a habit think first.