This week I extend on the habits that were set out in last week's post about https://steemit.com/blog/@earnonlinewith/two-habits-to-give-up-pt-i-thursday-thoughts-weekly-blog. You might want to read last week's post as the advice there will correlate with these next two habits you need to give up.

A habit is a tendency or behaviour that is repeated regularly to a point where it is done subconsciously thus making it harder to give up. Practicing good habits is essential to being the best person you can be whether to yourself or others. In reality, a good habit is often more difficult to maintain in the short-term than maintaining a bad one. It seems as though humans are prone to developing bad habits without any effort on their behalf, it's just in our nature. Things that are worthy in life are often not the easy ones.

Giving up a bad habit is just as hard as developing a good one but if you want to change it badly enough then you will succeed. This week's two bad habits you need to eliminate in your life are Negative Self-Talk and Criticizing Others.

Negative Self-Talk

We all have that inner voice that keeps telling us we are not good enough and belittles us every chance it gets. It takes control of the way we perceive our circumstance and interprets it negatively. It serves to rob us of our happiness and lead us to depression and if not dealt with it will surely destroy us.

It is important that you notice this habit the moment it occurs so you can challenge it head on. Whenever it throws negativity towards you, you must counter that by throwing positivity back at it whilst remaining realistic about your capabilities. Negative self talk can sometimes be confused with self criticism which is self reflection done to improve ourselves.

The inner voice is most harmful because everything you say to yourself matters whether you like it or not. It's greatest power is by tricking you into thinking you want to be a better person and it's all just healthy criticism. When in reality it is breaking you down and punishing you instead of finding ways for you to earn rewards. Earning rewards are a great incentive to help shape you new and lasting habits.

Criticizing others

I don't need to tell you why criticizing other people is not a good thing to do, I'm sure you already know why it's bad. That's the thing about bad habits they just can't help themselves and they are way to persistent for some people to even bother fixing them. We criticize others not because we disagree with them but because we feel insulted or devalued by their actions. It is the result of our own insecurities that we feel the need to attack others.

Your ego is to blame for this kind of reaction. Your ego is always telling you that you're the best and are always right. It is the distant cousin of negative self-talk but they don't get along because they are always criticizing one another. Not realizing that they have a lot in common through their habit of self destruction by not wanting to see fault in themselves. An uneducated ego will always lash out whenever it feels threatened.

You have to understand yourself in order to understand other people. Every one of us has their own ego and battles in life that criticizing another person is undermining them. Constructive criticism is always welcomed and should be done in a sincere manner to not hurt the receiver of such criticism.

Be self conscious and also aware and respectful of others' views.

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