Jason Seward: The Bad Habits Nobody Talks About Because They Feel Too Familiar

In this episode of Burning the Ships, Jason Seward flies solo to tackle a simple but counterintuitive idea that stopped him in his tracks while reading — quitting bad habits is far more impactful than starting new good ones. The premise is straightforward: you have to stop the leak before you fill the bucket.

Jason walks through what that actually looks like in real life — why people default to addition instead of subtraction, how youth masks bad habits until the body starts pushing back, and how he spent years adding intermittent fasting on top of a bad diet, too much alcohol, and no real sleep routine and wondered why nothing was changing. He breaks down the most common leaks across four categories — mental, relationship, financial, and physical — and gets personal about the ones he has had to plug himself, including impatience, a condescending tone, alcohol, distraction, and identifying himself as busy all the time.

This episode is not about adding more to your life. It is about being honest enough to look at what is quietly draining it.

Key Talking Points of the Episode

00:23 The quote that sparked this episode — quitting bad habits is more impactful than starting new good ones

00:52 The bucket analogy — you cannot fill a leaking bucket by just pouring more water in

01:34 Why adding new habits without removing old ones leads to stagnation or going backwards

02:24 Why people love addition and hate subtraction — new habits feel productive and exciting

09:12 The squirrel in the backyard — what ADHD actually looks like mid-recording

10:46 Why building new habits feels immediately productive even when the leaks are still there

11:16 Jason's intermittent fasting story — adding a new habit while everything else was still broken

13:28 When his blood work finally showed what was actually going on beneath the surface