Have you been struggling with any or some of these terrible
habits: Heavy Drinking, Smoking, Lying, stealing, watching unwholesome sites,
womanizing, prostitution, backbiting, quarreling borrowing, laziness, etc, and as
much as you try to drop it, the more you find yourself getting deeper into
it. Some habits are so strong that
certain measures must be taken before they can go away. Below are some of the measures you can take
to enable you drop a bad habit as quickly as possible:
You Have
To Make Up Your Mind To Stop – Let us use smoking as a case
study. The day you started smoking, you decided
on your own without anyone putting a gun to your neck. It will also be ethical you and you alone
make the decision to stop. The truth
remains that you are the only one that knows yourself very well, and who can
tell yourself the truth and have the sole power to make things work in your
life and there is nothing permanent in this life except change. People may counsel you as much as they could;
it is only when you agree with them that the counseling will work. So you have the key to take control of your
life than anyone else.
Marten,
a University undergraduate who was 19 when he took to smoking as a result of
peer pressure, narrated how he was able to drop this bad habit. At first he hid it away from his parents but
later they were able to find out through Marten’s friend. All efforts made by his parents to make him
stop were fruitless until one New Year eve.
Every member of his family went for a vigil service but he lied of
having a stomach ache and was left alone in the house. He locked himself in his room smoking. Suddenly according to him, realized that he
was the only one in the house and at the same time doing what everyone was
against - smoking. He became sober and
made that great decision to stop smoking.
Avoid
Every Avenue of Temptation – It is difficult to make a decision but it
is more difficult to keep such decision especially when it has to do with habits
that have already been formed. In order to
carry out your decision, you need to break every link to that bad habit. Everything that will make you go back to that
bad habit must be avoided.
Marten
said, he immediately ran out of the house, threw away the remaining packets of cigarette
in his room, the ash tray and the lighters.
He even broke up with his friends who smoke.
Move Ahead – Now
that you have dropped that bad habit, make yourself free and keep you mind busy
by engaging yourself with meaningful activities. Loosen yourself, make new friends and mix up
with people who can make you overcome your weaknesses and move to the next
level. Don’t allow your past to weigh you
down or be hunted by what you have left behind, live in the future. Marten said he used to be a loner, avoiding
even the members of his family because he would not want anyone to know or
understand what he was doing. As soon as
he stopped smoking, he reunited with his family and began to take part in house
chores, teaching his younger siblings their school work and never wanted to
stay alone again.
Most
importantly be prayerful. It takes a
committed and prayerful life to get away from a bad habit. Whenever your mind strays pray, there is no particular
position or place a person must be to pray.
Always give yourself to prayer and you will overcome.