Ben Franklin understood that the easiest way to stop a bad habit is to never get started. He said “’It’s easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” And as usual, wise old Ben was right.

Bad habits have a way of sneaking up on us. At first, they don’t seem so bad, and before we realize it, we’re caught up in some self-defating behavior that’s much harder to stop than it was to start.

So here’s a piece of advice that would make Ben Franklin proud: The very best way to break a bad habit is to never experiment with it in the first place. 

Habits Are Powerful. Choose Them with Care.

We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
John Dryden

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few bad habits as possible.
Eric Hoffer

To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life. Life is but a tissue of habits.
Henri Frédéric Amiel

Laws are never as effective as habits.
Adlai E. Stevenson

Old habits are strong and jealous.
Dorothea Brande

Sew an action and you reap a habit. Sew a habit and your reap a character. Sew a character and you reap a destiny.
William James

Living successfully is largely a matter of forming the right habits.
Earl Nightingale

Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you.
Elbert Hubbard

In everything set them an example by doing what is good.
Titus 2:7 NIV