When it comes to quitting a bad habit, or even changing that bad habit to a more suitable one, you can find lots of (un)solicited advice from a variety of sources… including in the self-help world.  Unfortunately, the personal development community has given a lot of awful advice in this field that simply doesn’t work. That’s not to say that some advice they give out doesn’t work for some people, but the majority of advice fails to really help others to change their awful habits.

This is also apparently in a few other communities. Consider Weight Watchers for example. A few people will have brilliant success losing a lot of weight with Weight Watchers or any other “fad” diet program. However, the majority of people will only lose a little big of weight, then they’ll start slacking off, and eventually come full circle to square one again. What gives?

Most of the time, when quitting something bad for you – whether it be trying to quit coffee or go vegetarian – the tools are right in front of you. There are hundreds of thousands of diet plans out there essentially telling you the same exact mantra in a reworded, prettier gift box. “Eat less, exercise more!” is what they all say, deep down inside. On the outside, that advice is deceivingly simple. Once you open the package, you realize how tough applying that advice really is.

One of the main problems I see with people is they get frustrated at themselves for not getting “the plan” right. You planned to lose weight, but things came up. You planned to finally kick all caffeine from your life, but somehow you can’t evade that Starbucks that’s 5 minutes from your house! You can keep going. I’m sure you have a couple you’d love to add as well.

But what if the problem didn’t lie with your willpower, courage, or strength? Then we have a different story.

This article shares with you a two tips I’ve found helpful in being able to quit anything. I used to weigh dangerously thin for my height (6′, 114lbs), but I’ve been able to bump it up to about 130lbs now by eating correctly and exercising a lot. Nearly all of my success I can attribute to changing bad habits of mine (no exercise, TV watching) to better, more conducive habits to get the results I want – in this case, weight gain. The process of gaining weight hasn’t been easy, but what I’ve learned along the way can possibly be of use to many people.

Do your research before you even begin.

A lot of people want end results right now, immediately, when they snap their fingers. It’s too bad the real world doesn’t work like this, eh?

For example, say you want to be able to lose 20 pounds by May 1st. That seems like a generally reasonable goal – that’s over 10 weeks away, and average healthy weightloss is somewhere between 2~3 pounds a week. Most people would probably pick a diet that looks appealing to them (Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Atkins, Nutrasystem, or eating and exercising to whatever degree they deem “correctly”) and off they would go, losing weight.

However, a few of the more brilliant folks around us would do what I would do. They would comparison shop around to see what all of the diets have in common. What are they suggesting you eat? Don’t eat? How much will you be required to exercise? What are some success stories of each diet? Failure stories?

Doing all of this background work seems like a lot of extra baggage – and it is a lot of work, no question. But by doing this, you gain an even clearer shot of success by looking at the road ahead of you. Figuring out underlying patterns lets you in on what obstacles you’re going to be facing. If you know what kind of troubles you’ll be encountering before you even begin, you can prepare yourself for the bumpy road ahead. You won’t be so surprised when a few large speed bumps suddenly appear in front of you.

For example, say you’re researching how to lose weight, and you discover that nearly everybody who starts any diet always complains about having a weak moment when they go to a restaurant. Nothing on the menu is ever healthy enough, they complain. Instead of skipping the meal and eating when they arrive home, they pick something horrendous to eat at the restaurant. This in turn leads down a slippery slope. “I don’t really care what I eat now, I already broke the rules once!” becomes their mantra; pretty soon they’re completely off the diet and back to where they started from.

You read all of their tales of restaurant woe and decide not to go to any restaurants for first four weeks of your diet, to make sure nothing will be knocking you off your path. And after 28 straight days on your diet, you know you’ll have the willpower to not even want to eat horrible foods at any restaurant. You won’t want to break that chain you created for yourself. 28 days free of crappy foods? Oh yeah!

This is an incredibly powerful simple step, if you take the time to utilize it for your own good. You might not be able to stop all of your future problems, but you can make a good dent in diminishing your own future havoc.

To sum it up, doing your research before you even begin to quit allows you to see patterns in the various habit-quiting methods there are out there – this in turn allows you to see the obstacles you’re against so you can start planning to dismantle those obstacles before you start changing your habits.

Forget about the big picture. Take it a day at a time.

Every adventure in life starts with one small step. And even though you might get very, very far and even accomplish some of your major goals, you still took small, daily steps to arrive at your destination. Sometimes the steps you take are like leaps, other times they’re more like baby steps. All in all, every little thing you do today has the possibility to push you towards where you want to be in the future.

The “big picture” I’m referring to here are those major goals that every personal development guru and his or her mother tells you that you need to set before you embark on a life mission. “Why are you cutting caffeine?” “Why are you quiting smoking?” “Why are you not eating any more fatty foods?” The gurus demand reasons from you. If only you could remember your reasons for starting in the first place, you can soar to the end of your goal because those reasons and mission statements will provide an endless stream of motivation from your gut when the going gets tough.

I’ve found that to be largely B.S.. Sure, those mission statements work fabulously well on occasion, but only when I’m already feeling somewhat motivated to begin with. To me, they’re like an adrenaline shot when my motivation is on 1/4 empty. But when my motivation is… say, 1/10th there, those mission statements are the equivalent of taking sleeping medication. I just don’t care what my original intentions were – I just don’t care period.

Circumventing this problem was fairly easy for me – whenever I had a day where I knew I had to exercise (to gain muscle, of course) and I felt like I didn’t want to do anything, I just reminded myself I only have to exercise for today. I only have to get through these three sets of dumbbell bench presses, and then I’m done for the day. I only have to get through these three sets of bicep curls, and then I’m done for the day. When I got home, I only have to eat these two veggie chicken patties, and then I’m done for the day.

Grand goals and schemes work wonderfully when planning for the future. And to an extent, they dictate how you’re day is going to look, to the degree you let them. But day by day actions are going to get you to your goals, not big picture thinking. Motivation is best when taken in daily – and even hourly – doses.

To me, thinking about how I’m going to look when I’m toned and 145lbs in 6 months is demotivating when I realize I have another ~6 months to go before I’m where I want to be. But knowing that I only need to do an hour worth of exercises today and then eat a few things every couple hours? Hey, that’s easy! I can definitely do that. One step at a time, there’s no need to rush, says Jordin Sparks.

You can even use this thinking whenever you feel overwhelmed with a large goal. Starting a new business, building relationships, you name it – take everything one day at a time.

And when you’re quitting a bad habit, simple action steps you can do right now makes the quitting process incredibly easier.

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Most everything else you need to know about changing a bad habit is common sense – have a goal, break it down, and so on. But when these basic steps start to become trite and don’t work out quite as well as you hope, I hope my two tip will come in and save your sinking ship. It’s with the basic steps and these two tips that you’ll be able to change any bad habit, every time. They worked fantastically well for me.

What tips and tricks have you found to be incredibly useful for quitting bad habits? Share them in the comments!