Please do not promptly say “they do not!” Dig in a bit deeper. We need to accept we are doing our best that we can based on our belief system. In a sense we are perfect in this moment!

I regularly attend Toastmasters. In one of the meetings I played the role of table topic master asking the audience questions and expected answers on the spot. I asked a young lady that seemed very fit how one of her bad habits were serving her? After couple of seconds of thinking she said she thinks about food a lot and eats too much food! She then said this bad habit is helping her to socialize with many people by going out. That was a surprising answer.

We need to understand what our bad habits provide to us. We then can change our belief about how we can get what we want without hanging on bad habits. Let us assume we eat lots of food to socialize with people, feel loved and accepted. Perhaps we have beliefs such as: “using food is the only way I can be accepted” “Talking about food is the only way to have friends”. If we now change our underlying belief to “people enjoy my presence” “I am loved for who I am” then we no longer need to cling to our old habits to sustain our belief system.

How do habits such as worry, long hours of work, being negative and giving up easily serve you?