Thoughts to Build On

to stop it, the stronger you make the habit-impulse.
So how do you eliminate a bad habit? There
really are many ways, but here we shall examine only one:
"Negative Practice." Here's how to do it.
We have just outlined how a habit is formed.
We stated that a habit starts as a conscious, deliberate
activity and becomes, through repetition, an unconscious,
impulsive response which is so ingrained that you cannot
control it by conscious will power.
You eliminate the habit simply by reversing the
process by which it was formed.
Specifically, you change it back from being an
impulsive, unconscious, uncontrollable activity to a COll-
scious, deliberate action which you can control and there-
fore eliminate at will.
This reversing, procedure is accomplished by
"Negative Practice". This means that you deliberately
and consciously do-and do excessively-exactly what you
want to eliminate doing habitually (impulsively, uncon-
trollably and unconsciously). When you consciously, de-
liberately and excessively repeat a habitual activity, you
obviously are consciously and deliberately doing and con-
trolling the action. That, of course, is exactly what you
want, because then, since it is under your conscious control,
you simply decide not to do it any more. And you don't.
If the habit does persist, you have not subjected
it to enough "Negative Practice" to gain complete conscious
control of it and so it is not subject to your will not to do
it. So continue your "Negative Practice", remembering to
do it consciously, deliberately, and excessively. Then apply