Habits are an incredibly human facility. It is an evolutionary efficiency adaption by the brain. For example: you see a hungry tiger-you run away from it! There is no thinking involved, it is evolution's way of keeping you alive! If you had to think about it, chances are by the time you decided to flee the Lions caloric intake would've increased.
Some say that it can take just three seconds to form a habit, but three weeks to break one. If we accept, for the sake of this discourse, that this is true then the question becomes "How can we ensure that the habits are positive and assisting us in some way?" Before that question can be answered, we must understand that habits come in a variety of forms. Some are automatic answers to situations and questions like "Donald Trump is a…". That politician has been around long enough that you probably had an automatic answer, along with an emotional response. The emotional response is what ingraines the answer and usually colours the rest of your thinking for the moment. This usually happened so fast that you are not aware of it mentally although there may be many other reactions.
The trick of course is to become aware of all the automated reactions we have. Then critique them "is this making me feel better or worse? Etc.". Powerful habits can be formed also when were caught off guard, not watching our own barn doors so to speak and allowing the habit to fly right in. These are the ones that do take a lot of work, but I find, one way to lessen their impact is to again critique them and if they are no use to you, challenge them. Easier said than done, but over time this does work.
Keep track of positive and negative habits. Big and small. The moment the positives are greater than the negatives you may just feel a little better. Take each day one step at a time.
Wow! If this short, New York Times article, doesn't demonstrate that one's outlook on life has a major impact on everything. 