'GMA' Quick Tip: How to Break Those Bad Habits

March 3, 2011 — -- Matt Bean from Men's Health magazine says bad habits can be downright dangerous, but he has some solutions to help you break them.

First, do you crank up the volume full blast when listening to music through your ear buds? Doing that for extended periods of time can cause permanent hearing damage. Here's why: The cells in your inner ear that process sound have to work overtime keeping up with the noise. Once those cells are damaged, they don't grow back.

Fewer cells means it's much more difficult to hear softer sounds, but you can retrain your brain to keep enjoying that music at a lower volume.

Start by turning down the level on your music player until you can hear other people talking to you ... without shouting! Also, check out earphones that automatically reduce your mp3 player or iPod's maximum volume by 20 decibels.

Talking and texting while driving not only is a danger to you and others on the road, but it's illegal in many states. Even with a hands-free device, one study showed that talking on your cell phone while driving slows your reaction time by more than 20 percent. You could just switch your cell phone ringer to silent when you get behind the wheel, but many of us don't want to or are afraid we'll forget to turn it back up once we reach our destination.

So try this: You're driving and your cell phone rings or beeps with a new text message. Visualize what could happen if you got distracted answering it and the impact an accident would have on your family or others on the road. That negative emotional association should make you think twice before you pick up that device.