Practice swapping and celebrating to make it stick

Identify a habit you want to stop doing
Let’s say you want to stop snapping at your daughter when you get annoyed.

Identify the prompt and the new behavior
The prompt is your irritation whenever your daughter does something careless. You could decide to replace snapping at her with a new habit of saying something sincerely positive.

Next time the prompt happens, do the new habit
Say the next night she grabs a yogurt and forgets to shut the refrigerator door. You feel that familiar surge of annoyance, but this is now your prompt for a new behavior. Instead of snapping, “Shut the door, for the millionth time!” you might say, “I’m glad you’re eating a healthy snack.”

Celebrate your accomplishment!
After you praise her choice of a snack, you’ve got to feel that you just did something good for your daughter. Congratulate yourself for supporting her and being the kind of parent that you want to be.

If you forget to do the new habit, then physically or mentally rehearse the swap multiple times, and celebrate to connect the old prompt to the new habit