Here is what I meant, but I don't think it came out very well.

1. For someone to change a habit (or lack there of) they need to make a conscious effort to do it themselves.

2. Providing someone positive (good job) or negative (nagging) renforcement may help someone who has a desire to change, but if they have no desire to change it will not help them.

3. In my experience, negative renforcement (nagging) for a habit that I have had no desire to change may have paused my activity, but only while that person was there, it didn't actually change the habit.

4. All of the bad habits I have changed came about because I wanted to do it. My friends, siblings, parents, and etc had little effect on my habits (I only hid the bad habit from them). Except, when you hang out with people that still have that habit you are trying to break, it does make it harder.

For example, when I quit smoking I also quit going to places where I would smoke in and avoided people that I smoked with and avoided situations that I would smoke more (normally).

5. I listened to a lot of complaining/nagging from my parents/family/friends, but I ignored it.

However, this is just what I think and my experience. The habits discussed were not things like Smoking or ingestion of soda or etc. Changing things that are more core to you takes a bit more from the person. My friends don't keep close track of their finances because they don't have to, but in college, I got burned and had a check bounce because I didn't realize that a check (from a month or two before) hadn't cleared. I made a decision to keep close track of my finances after that...but again it was me responding to it and decided to do it myself.

It was always an internal desire for change, not the external influences (hacking, bad teeth, yearly bronchitis, or parental nagging). Some of these played into my decision, yes, but not to any major extent.

I'm not saying it won't work or will work. I can just share my experiences.