Most people ask themselves “why am I like this?” Better question: “When did I start doing this?”

Asking why you are like this invites a verdict, and the answer comes back as something about your character. Asking when it started asks for a date, and dates come with circumstances: a school, a year, a person. A habit with a beginning is a response to something rather than a permanent fact about you. That is a very different thing to work with.

Take one habit you dislike and place roughly when it began. Ask what it was doing for you then, because it was almost certainly useful. Then ask whether it still is, since most of these turn out to be old protection nobody has retired.