My secret to destroying bad habits

Like everyone, I’ve had my fair share of bad habits in the past.

Junk food. Doom Scrolling. Alcohol. Partying - the usual suspects.

So back when I first started my entrepreneurial journey online, I wanted to make a change.

I wanted to go all in and make this online business thing work, and I knew my habits would get in the way.

Whether it was endless doom-scrolling distracting me from the work or partying on a Saturday night ruining my productivity and mental fortitude for the week ahead.

And so I scoured the internet, read every book and tried every technique to break these habits.

Sometimes a day would go by and I would run back to them.

Sometimes a week, or maybe even 2 would go by and I would run back to them.

But no matter what, I kept running back to my vices.

You see, the problem with a habit is that it gets stronger the more it’s repeated - after enough time and enough repetitions, it becomes hard-wired into your psyche.

It becomes a part of you and your identity.

All your identity is, is a series of beliefs around yourself and the world that are formed through repeated experience - and few experiences are repeated as often as habits.

And so over time, you go from having the habit of partying to having the identity of a partygoer, someone who parties.

Which on the surface, sure, might not seem like too bad of a problem - but the thing about your identity is that it’s a tyrant.

Your identity doesn’t like you acting outside of what it deems acceptable, especially in a way that contradicts its current self.

This is why bad habits are so hard to break.

You cannot act outside of your identity, at least not for a long enough period of time to break most bad habits.

And if you see yourself as someone who gets distracted, procrastinates, isn’t ready, needs more time, doesn’t know enough, smokes, drinks, scrolls, or whatever else, you will act in accordance with that label you have for yourself.

Because you cannot act outside of what you believe to be true, and your identity is just a series of beliefs about yourself and the world.

So if you want to break a bad habit, whether it’s procrastination, constant distraction, jumping from shiny object to shiny object, drinking, smoking, or anything else, you must destroy the version of you that associates with that habit.

That my friend, is my secret to destroying habits.

You must see yourself as someone who does not do that habit.

Back when I was in my first year of university, I would party and drink all the time - and not lightly (I would only drink whisky and I’m Northern Irish, we like to go big).

I saw myself as a partygoer and so I would party.

It wasn’t until I tore down the walls of my identity and rebuilt them to be something different, something that benefited me and without that old label, that I stopped.

You see, your old identity doesn’t just disappear.

It has to be torn down, put on a stake and burned - and it won’t go easy, it’ll fight back.

And the only way you can win is if you actively rebuild your identity into something beneficial and positive.

To do that you have to;

1. Decide on an identity to build

This identity should be the type of person capable of achieving your goal.

This also shouldn’t be rushed or half-assed, it needs to be carefully considered.

2. Figure out the actions that person would take

What actions/habits/behaviours do they do daily?

3. Take those actions daily

As simple as that. Start to do those things every single day - this is repeated experience that rebuilds what you see as possible.

Depending on where you are in life, you might need to introduce them over time.

4. Stack evidence

Every single time you take an action that the person you’re trying to become would take, you write it down.

This will create a stack of proof and evidence that you are that person.

5. Time

Give it time. Show up daily. Do the work - because this won’t happen overnight.

Now to remove bad habits, you can also couple the classic habit removal techniques from the likes of the book Atomic Habits with this, but so long as follow these 5 steps for long enough, eventually those old habits will wither away and die.

This is something I go over in detail in MasteryOS and will be covering extensively in the update that will be released in June.

So if you want to rebuild your identity to destroy the bad habits that are holding you back and become the person you need to be to achieve your goals - click here

PS: With the update, the price will be increasing. Right now is the lowest price you’ll ever be able to join MasteryOS for. If you join today, you’ll get the updated cirriculum for free upon release.

- Ross