What A Life

Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series, has come up with a method for helping us get rid of the negative habits that keep us for being the persons that God wants us to be. He calls this five-step method “Dump Those Negative Habits Now!”

These five steps can be most helpful in growing in the spiritual life.

Hansen first reminds us that our habits will determine our future. Successful habits create positive rewards. Negative habits breed negative consequences. If we want to build loving relationships in our lives, we must be generous with our time, energy, and love. If we want to draw closer to God, we must develop the habit of prayer.

We can get rid of our bad habits and attitudes. It is a very simple process that just takes some applied focus. Hansen recommends these five steps:

1) “Clearly identify your bad or unproductive habits. Write them down. Be specific. Consider the long-term consequences should you continue in this bad habit. Look at all aspects of your life – your habits at home, at work, in your free time, your communications and relations with others, and in matters related to your physical, emotional and spiritual health. Be totally honest.”

In the spiritual life we call this an examination of conscience. We honestly look at the faults and failure that we keep repeating and we name and claim them. We cannot get rid of the demons in our lives unless we can name and claim them. Blaming others for our harmful attitudes and habits will never bring healing.

We can forgive someone who helped us form bad habits but these habits are ours. Only the individual can do something about them.

2) “Define your new successful habit and visualize its results in your life. Think about all the benefits and rewards for adopting your new successful habit. The more vividly you describe the benefits and create the picture in your mind, the more likely you are to take action.”

We all need to have clearly defined goals in lives.

3) “Create a three-part action plan. For every bad habit, you can take fifteen action steps to help you stop. It’s easy to come up with action steps, but they have to be your action steps that you know are within your realm of taking. Don’t list action steps that you know in your heart you will not do.”

Being focused is most important. More is not better.

4) “For the next three weeks, schedule these action steps into your day. If you know you want to start exercising three times a week, schedule it now into your life. If you want to start reading uplifting books, schedule an hour in your daily schedule and make plans now where you will read without interruption. Whatever the new habit, work it into your schedule for the month ahead. Most habits, even the ugliest ones, can be completely re-patterned in this short period.”

5) “Take action! Start with one habit that you really want to change.

Focus on your three immediate steps and put them into action. Do it now. Remember, nothing will change until you do.”

Change one habit and after you have been successful in doing that, move onto another. Some habits are harder to break than others. Some habits might involve the help of others like alcohol, drug, or gambling additions. Make that part of your plan to seek the help you need to overcome the addition.

For the Christian or spiritual person, we believe that God should be part of our efforts. Maybe our sixth step should be: Pray to God for the strength to do what we must do.