The moment you start defending a bad habit, you’ve signed the adoption papers.

Doing something and arguing for it are two different acts. While you still call it a problem, it stays separate from you and remains available for change. Once you start building a case, you have to protect the case as well as the behaviour, and changing now means admitting you were wrong twice. Defending is what turns a habit into an identity.

Notice which one you explain most often. Describe it for a week without the justification attached, just the plain fact of what you do. The argument is usually holding up more of it than the habit is.