Nail biting, teeth grinding, leg shaking, scripture reading, nighttime prayer saying and athletic training; these are called habits. These habits and many others are what make up a person’s character and daily activities.

There are two opposite kinds of habits, just like there are polar opposites for everything in life. There are good habits and bad habits. Breaking bad habits is not an easy thing to do, especially when the bad habit has an addicting quality. In the April 2008 issue of the New Era, President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “As you learn to control your thoughts, you can overcome habits, even degrading personal habits.”

Controlling thoughts will help to overcome habits, but controlling thoughts can be hard. One suggestion is to think of a hymn and say the words when bad things creep into the recesses of the mind.

So what is the key to kicking a habit? Kortney Capozzoli, a freshman studying art, said, “Breaking a habit is hard because you are motivating yourself to do something different, something you are not used to doing. It requires not just a change of habit, but also a change of person.” The key to changing a habit is to change as a person.

Breaking habits can be hard and frustrating sometimes, but what about making good habits? Making or forming good habits can be a little bit easier because they are usually something good and worthwhile. Sheila Spencer, a sophomore studying elementary education at BYU, Provo, said this about forming good habits: “Consistency. If you stop doing something, for even one day, it’s hard to get right back on track. Then … if you do mess up and fall short on your goal of obtaining a good habit, don’t be discouraged. Start right back up again.” Don’t be fooled; forming habits can be hard — sometimes just as hard as breaking bad habits. Both endeavors’ of making or breaking habits can be hard because they require a change — a change in actions, in thoughts, in words and in deeds.

President Joseph Fielding Smith taught: “Habits are easily formed. It is just as easy to form good habits as it is to form evil ones” (New Era, July 1972, p. 23). Imagine that someone throws five balls at you all at once … it would be difficult and nearly impossible to catch them all. To develop good habits and kick the bad ones, work on each habit one at a time.