What to do when bad habits accumulate? When you smoke a little too much, drink a little too much, don’t exercise at all, grumble too much, stay in front of the screen too much? In other words, how can you stop letting yourself go? Here are my 10 motivating tips to help you get back on track. You’ll love them!

1 – Take stock of your bad habits to stop letting yourself go

First and foremost, it’s important to take an honest look at ourselves. After all, how can we get our act together if we’re not even aware of our bad habits?

So start by listing all your bad habits. Don’t take this opportunity to condemn and criticize yourself. That’s not the point. In fact, it’s counter-productive. If you want to get your life back on track, the first thing you need is encouragement. So start encouraging yourself now! What do you think?

2 – Set a goal to get back on track

Once you’ve listed all your bad habits, choose one. The one that bothers you the most, or the one that seems easiest to stop. Make your choice!

Then, transform this bad habit into a goal that really pleases and interests you. Indeed, if what you’re about to change in your life doesn’t really please and interest you, then you’ll procrastinate, and even end up giving up quickly. In other words, your goal has to really motivate you, and even make your heart beat faster.

3 – Sort out the people around you to stop letting yourself go

Often, those around us share the same bad habits as we do. So, to succeed in stopping your bad habits, one by one, start by seeing a little less of those around you .

For example: if you want to stop smoking, start by going out a little less or staying in a little less. If you want to stop eating too much fat or sugar, eat a few meals a week on your own. What do you think?

In fact, in the beginning, get as far away as possible from people who are likely to make you give up trying to get your life together. Just in the beginning. Because, once you’re more solid, no matter what others do or say, you’ll keep your commitments.

4 – Read personal development books to motivate yourself

There’s nothing like reading motivational books to stop you letting yourself go. In fact, many self-help books have been written by people who, at one time or another, have let themselves go. And in their books, they offer their experience, advice and mistakes to avoid. In other words, they help us to succeed!

That’s why read self-help books. Start with a few pages or 30 minutes a day. What do you think?

5 – Create a daily routine to stop letting yourself go

If you want to stop letting yourself go, then rely on a daily routine. After all, you can’t stop bad habits magically or just one Saturday a month. It’s all about constant effort, and above all, daily effort.

So start by creating a daily routine. For example, if you want to stop smoking, you can start by taking a walk every day. Because, often, we smoke to relax. So find another way to breathe deeply and relax every day.

If you want to get back into sport, do a little every day. You can go for a walk on one day and on another, go to the pool, ride your bike or do a yoga session. Vary the sports. And just do 30 minutes a day at first. What do you think?

6 – Make a commitment and team up with someone you trust

It’s not always easy to keep your commitments, especially when you’re doing it on your own. That’s why you need to find someone you can trust. In other words, someone you can commit to by saying “I’ve decided to stop smoking, lose so many kilos and get back into sport”. This person will be able to encourage you, but also get angry if you let yourself go. What do you think?

Better still, you could team up with this person and ask them if they too have a goal in mind. Suggest that they team up. Encouraging each other and getting angry when necessary. What do you think?

7 – Always look ahead to stop letting yourself go

The past is often a good excuse for letting things go. We tend to judge ourselves harshly, especially at the beginning. Let’s say you want to quit smoking, but you’ve already been smoking for 20 years. Then you might not take yourself seriously and make fun of yourself. For example, you might say to yourself: “What? I want to quit smoking, but I’ve been smoking for 20 years. What a joke!”

Stop! Always look ahead. Look to tomorrow instead of dwelling on yesterday. You’re not the person you were yesterday, you’re already the person you want to be tomorrow. What do you think?

8 – Forgive yourself for your mistakes and shortcomings so that you don’t give up

One of the most important rules to follow when you decide to take charge of yourself and your life is not to use your shortcomings as an excuse to give up.

Because, as long as you don’t give up, you’re on your way, you’re taking charge. Even if you make mistakes, even if you don’t do everything right. So forgive yourself and keep up your efforts, instead of taking the opportunity to give up. What do you think?

9 – Never give up

The phrase that helps me the most to never give up is this one: “The only cause of failure is giving up.” Indeed, as long as you don’t give up, you haven’t failed.

So never give up and always keep moving forward. In fact, understand that nothing’s going to go as planned, that you’ll often be disappointed by your performance, that you’ll rarely do things right. Because it’s hard to change, but it’s not impossible. So don’t give up. Will you?

10 – Do this motivating visualization to stop letting yourself go

There’s another exercise that helps me enormously in keeping my commitments, and that’s this visualization: Imagine yourself on your deathbed and ask yourself right now what kind of person you’d like to be on that deathbed. What would you like to say about yourself? What bad habits will you have eliminated from your life? What good habits have you developed over the course of your life? What will make you proud of yourself?

This visualization is magic. Start by doing it every morning, because it will motivate you like never before . What do you think?

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover How to free yourself from your past
Discover Stop having to put up with life: tips for moving forward

I also recommend this inspiring book on the subject:

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
This memoir describes Cheryl Strayed’s lonely adventure along the Pacific Crest Trail. Through physical challenges and introspection, she takes control of her life and finds recovery after a period of personal crisis.
This book captivated me right from the first page. It’s heartwarming and tragic, with a touch of hope. I recommend it to anyone who has ever felt lost or detached from life.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself.