Bad Habit

I hear people say that they want to get rid of a bad habit or shortcoming in their manner of living.  Well, when you get rid of something, what replaces it?  There is no such thing as a void in behavior.  Either we do the right thing, the virtue, whatever that my be, or we do the wrong thing, the vice, bad habit. When I do not seem to be getting rid of a bad habit, I find that it is because I have not practiced sufficiently a good habit.  Someone says, "I want to stop drinking."  What is going to replace it?  If you drink too much, it is your solution to some misery, identified or not.  If I run too much and am hurting myself, I cannot simply say, "I will run less or no more."  I run too much as a solution to something.  What is going to replace my running too much, that will deal with why I run in the first place?  All bad habits lead to misery for the practitioner or those around them.  A void does not replace a bad habit.  Gotta go and run.  People say I am looking a little skinny.  What do they know?