Like it or not, we all have bad habits. Some are far more toxic than others, but they will ruin your wellness, your productivity, and any chance of achieving your long-term goals. As high-achieving doctors, we have achieved much but, if we are honest with ourselves, we have picked up some bad habits along the way too.
Understand this… bad habits aren’t something we are born with. Like our good habits, it took months and years of constant repetition to create the bad habit. In that spirit, we can break these bad habits with intention and focus.
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What’s Stopping You From Breaking the Bad Habits
Bad habits don’t make you a bad person–far from it. And it surely doesn’t make you a bad doctor, but there are several bad habits that doctors make that keep them in the land of mediocrity.
Before we get started, we have to understand (and be honest here) why we are having trouble with some of our bad habits. If you are anything like me, you continue with the bad habits because you convince yourself of one of two things:
- I have been doing [insert bad habit] for the longest time, and it really doesn’t affect my life (well, at least, not too much). Changing [insert bad habit] will take too much time and effort, and it is not that much of a big deal, so I’ll keep doing it.
- I have been doing [insert bad habit] for so long I don’t even know where to begin on changing it.
If this sounds familiar, keep reading! We are going to crush these bad habits together!
First, What’s Your Bad Habit Trigger?
We can’t even talk about breaking the bad habit cycle until we go deep–I mean, really deep. This would be a great time to pull out your journal and carve out 15 minutes of uninterrupted time to be honest and introspective with yourself. Remember, bad habits didn’t just happen; there was a trigger that started you on this road.
What is your trigger that keeps you going to this bad habit? The first and most crucial step is to understand why it exists in the first place. It is essential to write it down. Seeing it on paper makes it real in your mind. Change can only happen when we acknowledge it, especially if it makes us uncomfortable (and maybe cringe a little).
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How to Break These 5 Habits
1. Self-Sabotage
Self-sabotage can interfere with your best intentions and best-laid plans. It can be your own worst enemy. It hinders your well-being, and frankly, results in physician burnout.
There are innumerable ways we sabotage ourselves. This can include overeating due to stress or medicating ourselves with drugs or alcohol. These actions fail to address problems at home or at work. Unfortunately, it gets in the way of true growth.
You may feel that you don’t deserve success or happiness. Psychologists call this cognitive dissonance. First investigated in 1957 by Leon Festinger, his theory suggests that we all have an inner drive to keep all of our behaviors and attitudes in harmony. And when there is an inconsistency (i.e., dissonance), we will make every effort to bring things back into balance. As physicians, we love consistency.
So, if you view yourself as inadequate or undeserving, you will make every attempt to make that real in your mind and remain consistent.
Pro Tip: Change Your Inner Voice
Fear is often at the root of our self-sabotaging behavior. We begin to believe that inner voice that tells us that we are undeserving or that we are a failure. Begin the process of creating a positive and encouraging environment in your home and at work. Once you hear a whisper of that negative inner voice, stop what you are doing, take a few deep breaths, and change it immediately to an affirmative, confident voice.
This will take time. Enjoy the process. Learn to love incremental improvement. Begin by making small corrections at first and celebrate these victories. As your confidence builds, you will quickly be able to pivot away from the negative self-talk toward a positive and healthy approach to upcoming tasks.
2. Seeking Perfection
Perfection is elusive … it can be a siren song. Remember, you can never quite reach perfection as it simply can not be fully achieved. Once we grasp this, when you stop trying to find it, you free yourself to truly pursue your goals and dreams.
So what is perfection?
While Merriam Webster defines perfection as “being entirely without fault or defect,” perfectionism, as defined by psychologist Dr. Frost, is “broadly defined as a combination of excessively high personal standards and overly critical self-evaluation.”
The latter is a far better description of a physician’s (or other high achieving professionals) quest. There is this false perception that the perfect life (or lifestyle) is within reach if one would just try hard enough. This flawed thinking, on the surface, makes a lot of sense. Why? That’s how many of us achieved” “success” in our careers–we worked hard, if not harder than our peers.
Pro Tip: Focus on 1% Everyday
You can continue to be someone else’s best, or you can focus on becoming your best, focusing on becoming 1% better every day. Many of us understand the concept of compounding. In 1 year, if you worked on getting 1% better every day, you would have improved 3800%. So focus on small incremental improvements daily. Whatever it is, make sure you are constantly moving forward. It will feel imperceptible at first but will reap include dividends for you. Consistency is the key.
“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”-Thomas Jefferson
3. Neglecting Your Health
Having dedicated your career to medicine, it should be evident that physical wellness is paramount for our patients but equally important to us as well. Optimal physical well-being recognizes that the need for physical activity is necessary for overall health. The physical benefits of looking good and feeling great very often lead to enhanced self-esteem, self-control, and a focused sense of direction.
It is no surprise to you that positive physical habits can help decrease stress, lower your risk of disease, and increase your energy.
Pro Tip: Schedule It
Rather than hoping to decide to exercise–schedule a time to exercise. Instead of wishing you will make great food choices at work, schedule time for meal prep the night before. Rather than hoping you will get 7 hours of sleep tonight, set an alarm to get to bed–that’s right, set an alarm to start your evening ritual so you won’t be tempted to watch “one more show” on Netflix unintentionally.
James Clear, a habit expert, agrees. In his words, “…I am not hoping that I will have enough willpower to make it to the gym. It’s just where I go on Mondays at 6 pm.”
4. Multitasking
As high-achieving physicians, we think we can multitask. We can’t. Some may even proudly announce that we are masters at multitasking. They are not. As an emergency physician, I hear this a lot in my specialty, but the reality is (as countless research studies have proven) that as humans, we are horrible at multitasking.
Doctor, you can’t be the CEO (Chief Everything Officer) for your personal, professional life. We have all tried (and some are still trying). But it is simply unsustainable, unrealistic, and, frankly, unhealthy for you and your family in the long term.
Pro Tip: Get Rid of the Small Things
Small things have a way of creeping into our daily routines and becoming just that part of our daily routine. Before you know it, your day is filled with small, inconsequential distractions that keep you from reaching your goals.
“People are no longer human beings. We should be called human doings.”- Richard Carlson, Ph.D., Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Growth and success mean reviewing what works and what doesn’t work. Look at your past week and review your wins and “losses.” Look critically at your list and see how you can carve out even more time. Try to simplify as much as you can. Keep doing this practice for several weeks and whittle the list down to the essential things needed for your growth and happiness.
5. Saying Yes to Almost Everything
For most of my career, I felt that I needed to say yes to every opportunity to be valued or to advance professionally. The reality is that I prioritized other people’s needs rather than the needs of myself or my family. My goals suffered and stalled, and my wellness, in turn, deteriorated. I learned that there’s a big difference between pleasing people and helping people.
Pro Tip: Say No to Almost Everything
I always keep this mantra in mind…Helping people is not about saying yes to all of the people all of the time; rather, it is about saying yes to some of the people, some of the time to some of their requests.
It’s important to remind yourself of this. Saying no is not easy but extremely necessary to maintain our wellness. You may feel disappointed that you are letting the person down, but, remember, in our path toward wellness, you must make yourself a priority. This is not selfish–it is imperative. It’s time to start saying yes to the important aspects of your life–your time, your goals, and your relationships.
Now Go Crush Those Bad Habits!
Remember, anyone can break bad habits. It will take time, so be kind with yourself and offer yourself some grace but take these pro tips and begin today! It’s about time, isn’t it?
I, and the rest of the Medicine Revived community, are here to help. Head on over to the Medicine Revived Facebook Page and join in the conversation!
Until next time, be good to yourself and each other!
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