3 Steps To Take If You Want To Kick A Bad Habit For Life

Tired of being unable to truly rid yourself of bad habits? New research reveals the three-step process to actually kicking them, and for good this time.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | November 25, 2024

According to America's Health Rankings' surveys, up to 72% of Americans have at least one unhealthy habit—namely insufficient sleep, sedentary behavior, excessive drinking, smoking or overeating. And, if you're one of the 72%, you're likely already aware that these habits are unhealthy. But, try as we might, this knowledge alone doesn't make bad habits any easier to break.

"Why do we act on habit even when we intend to do something else?" This is the question that plagued Wendy Wood, a researcher interested in behavior change. And according to her June 2024 study published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, "The answer lies in habit memories, or context-response associations, that form when people repeat rewarding actions in stable contexts."

Despite what you might think, habit reformation has nothing to do with your motivation; you can truly want to kick the habit, but wanting alone isn't enough. Instead, Wood suggests that the secret to effective behavior change lies in intention and memory—and it's simpler than you imagine. Based on her research, these are the three steps needed to kick a bad habit for good.

1. Find A New Reward System

Unhealthy habitual behavior doesn't form because we desire their negative effects; they form because, in many ways, they feel good. As a 2003 chapter in Human Decision Making and Environmental Perception explains, "These bad habits may relate to behaviors that have positive direct outcomes for the self, but negative consequences on the long run." No matter how dangerous or unsavory these habits are, they're objectively rewarding in the moment. Smoking relaxes us, speeding excites us and fast food satisfies us—regardless of their consequences.

Thus, Wood suggests that first the key to kicking a bad habit lies in ensuring that their rewards lose their effectiveness, and in turn, becoming self-aware of their genuinely habitual (and harmful) nature. From here, we're able to trick ourselves into a healthier habit by means of the very same reward structure.

Say, for instance, you're someone who has a habit of binge-watching TV to unwind after a long workday. The rewarding feeling of relaxing on the couch with episode after episode is so strong that it often overrides your intention to make a healthy dinner. By the time you're done watching, it feels easier to grab takeout or snack on junk food instead of preparing a meal.

The trick here is to find an alternative that feels more rewarding than the bad habit itself. As soon as you get home, you'll prepare a proper dinner first. As soon as the meal is ready and you've eaten, reward yourself with the chance to watch an episode of a favorite show. Over time, the reward of your post-dinner episode will help your mind associate cooking a healthy meal with a pleasurable, relaxing experience.

This new reward system—watching TV only after cooking and eating—starts to retrain your brain to crave the accomplishment of preparing your meal. Gradually, the act of cooking itself might even become a part of your unwinding process. You'll start to look forward to dinner prep as the beginning of a relaxing evening, and the satisfaction of both a nourishing meal and your reward will reinforce this positive new habit.

2. Change Your Context Cues

Think about your worst habit, and try to remember how it started. In doing so, you might come to realize that bad habits are often a product of association and repetition—and a 2010 study from Health Psychology exemplifies this well. The authors pose this as an example: "A person's initial decision to eat a cookie when drinking a cup of tea might be guided by an active goal state (e.g., feeling hungry)." They continue, "However, over time the goal becomes less necessary as cookie eating is repeated and becomes integrated with the act of drinking tea so that it can be triggered by the cue alone."

Over time—or, rather, over many cups of tea—the researchers explain that cookie eating "slowly acquires the qualities of cue contingent automaticity." They conclude, "An individual may eventually come to think of cookie eating as 'a bad habit,' or something that 'I cannot help doing.'" And this is why Wood suggests changing context cues is another essential component of habit reformation.

Let's say you have a habit of stopping at a fast-food drive-thru on your way home from work. It's become part of your routine; even if you're not particularly hungry, the sight of the golden arches or the neon Taco Bell sign is a cue that triggers the craving. Over time, you've come to associate your drive home with an end-of-day treat—which makes it hard to resist, even when you know it's not the healthiest choice.

To break this association, consider altering your route entirely. If possible, take a different way home that doesn't pass any tempting fast-food spots. This way, there will be an absence of visual context cues that once fueled your craving. Over time, this change will weaken the old association between your commute and the fast-food stop.

3. Introduce Friction

Anyone actively struggling with a vice will have means to enact their bad habit at any given point. Alcoholics vie to maintain well-stocked booze cabinets, smokers keep their packs of cigarettes on them at all times, and compulsive snackers will always ensure they have a stash hidden somewhere. As a 2022 study from Annual Review of Psychology explains, "Habits rely upon the possibility of their frequent, consistent execution in the environment context." That is, a habit becomes a habit when it's enabled to do so.

When we allow ourselves constant, immediate access to an enjoyable (albeit unhealthy) object or circumstance, reaching for it will easily become habitual; our awareness of the fact that we can have it whenever we want, wherever we are, will reinforce this. Therefore, Wood strongly emphasizes the role of friction in breaking unhealthy habits. Much like we'd hide the cookie jar from our children in high places they can't reach, adding friction means we need to make it as difficult as possible for us to fall prey to our vices.

For instance, say your bad habit is endlessly scrolling through social media in bed each night. What starts as a quick check of your notifications often turns into hours of browsing; it cuts into your sleep, and it leaves you feeling groggy and sluggish the next morning. You want to break this habit, but the convenience of having your phone within arm's reach makes it far too easy to give in to the temptation to scroll.

To add friction to this habit, you could take a more intentional approach by charging your phone in a different room entirely—say, in the living room or on a kitchen counter. This way, reaching for it when you're in bed now requires getting up and moving; it requires deliberate effort that can be just enough to deter you from indulging in late-night scrolling. Since you're creating a physical barrier that reminds you to stay present in your nighttime routine, restful sleep will be more likely. Over time, this added friction helps you distance yourself—quite literally—from the bad habit.

Are snacks your greatest vice? Take this science-backed test to find out if you have a problem with emotional eating: Emotional Eater Questionnaire

A similar version of this article can also be found on Forbes.com, here.