It is virtually impossible for most individuals to immediately abandon a bad habit. Going cold turkey, requires enormous willpower. And, unfortunately, willpower is a very limited resource. Willpower appropriates too much brain fuel (glucose). Eventually the brain runs out of brain fuel, willpower fades and we all fall back on our bad habits.
But there is a way to train your brain to release you from bad habits, which does not place significant fuel demands on the brain.
STEP 1 – Instead of going cold turkey on a bad habit, continue to engage in the bad habit, but reduce your engagement in the habit over time. For two months, reduce your engagement in the bad habit by 25%. The brain will not fight you on this because it requires a minimum expense of willpower to reduce your bad habit by 25%. After two months, that reduced bad habit, will become your new bad habit baseline.
STEP 2 – Repeat STEP 1 by reducing your reduced bad habit another 25%. After another two months, that will become your new baseline bad habit.
If you keep repeating this bad habit reduction strategy, you will eventually be able to abstain 100% from the bad habit without any push back from your brain.
