You get what you do, not what you wish. And what you do on a daily basis determines what you get in the future. Thus, it is your behaviors that get you where you are today.
If you are someone who always procrastinates, you will find that you are living a hectic life, fighting with deadlines, and getting things done at the last minute. It makes you feel stressed.
Bad behaviors interrupt your life and prevent you from achieving your goals. Getting rid of them not only helps you build a better life, but also improve your overall wellbeing, including both your physical and mental health.
Most people are not aware of their bad behaviors. Some people have deeply rooted bad habits that they have made them part of their identity.
We all know that we need to change our bad behaviors and get rid of habits that are not empowering us, but why do so many people still live with them?
Well, first, they are not aware of them. Most people are not conscious of their bad behaviors. Like people who always complain. They are not aware that they are complaining because the behavior has ingrained in their mind and they do it on autopilot.
Just like fish are not aware that they are living in the water.
Second, bad behaviors are difficult to change. Think about it as a deeply rooted 20 feet tall tree. It is difficult to uproot the tree, with its root growing deep into the ground for years.
The same goes for your behaviors and habits. The longer you repeat them and live with them, the more difficult to uproot them.
But difficult doesn’t mean impossible. As long as you are aware of the bad behaviors that prevent you from living a successful life, you can do something to change them, replace them, or get rid of them.
Below are the 11 most common bad behaviors you must let go if you want to move forward and achieve greater success in life…
This is one of the most common bad behaviors most people have. They waste too much time on social media, games, and watching too many videos on Netflix and YouTube.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that social media or playing games are bad. But you need to understand between having leisure and letting it takes away your life.
I’m on social media. I do check updates on Facebook and I did watch YouTube videos. But I don’t let them take over my life. I know I’m in control as long as I don’t overspend my time there.
Most people check their phones the first thing in the morning after they wake up. They wasted 15 to 30 minutes of their time on their phones. And then the last thing before they sleep, they check their phones again.
They waste another 15 to 30 minutes checking social media or playing games. These are bad behaviors you need to give up.
If you don’t control your behavior on this, it will control your life.
Imagine what will happen if you swap your time on Facebook with reading success books? Guess how much you can improve and how much you can accomplish?
So, do not overspend your time on social media, games, or videos. When you are busy checking out other people’s lives, you miss out on living your own life.
Read: 7 Ways To Stop Your Social Media Addiction
Let’s face it, online courses are everywhere these days. Especially during these times, online courses are booming like mushrooms after rain.
Anyone can sell online, and you can find all kinds of courses on the internet nowadays.
How many courses have you bought? Have you created the results you want?
The problem with most people is that they have made it a behavior to look for the next opportunity or the next shiny object. They are the hope seeker.
For instance, people love the idea of having an additional income from the internet. They don’t have to report to their boss, and they work any time and anywhere they want. Who doesn’t want that, right?
The idea may sound cool, and this is why a lot of people are buying “hopes”. They buy into the promises that marketers promote.
The point is not about buying too many courses, but it is about buying the feeling that you are “going to make it”. Most people buy hopes. This is why they end up collecting courses but are not doing anything with what they have learned.
Thus, get rid of the bad behavior of learning without action. The best learning comes from experience. And experience requires you to act.
You can’t just buy a guide on how to swim. You need to jump into the water and swim. You can’t learn how to ride a bicycle by reading a book. You learn by riding it.
Do you get it? Stop your habit of buying courses and start implementing what you have learned.
Another bad behavior most people have that stop them from achieving the success they want in life is short-term thinking.
They don’t think long-term. They only focus on what is in front of them.
Just like the story of the 3 bricklayers. The first bricklayer sees himself laying bricks, the second bricklayer sees himself building a wall, and the third bricklayer sees himself building a beautiful house.
Most people see themselves as the first bricklayer. They only see what is in front of them. They work because of the salary.
You indeed need to have an income to survive, and that is why you go to work. But if you want to thrive, not just survive, you need to think long-term. You need to have a vision for how you want your life to be in the future, and start taking actions to get there.
Never let your short-term thinking becomes a behavior that stops you from living your best life.
Read: How to Think Long-Term: 7 Tips to Foster Your Long-Term Thinking
I love this quote from Dale Carnegie:
Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.
Dale Carnegie
Animals don’t compare themselves to others. Have you seen a low self-esteem bird that doesn’t sing? No, you don’t. You only see that happens to us, humans.
Because we always listen to others and compare them with each other. We ask comparison questions like, who is better, who is richer, who is more beautiful, who is more successful, who has a better car, etc.
This is how we develop low self-esteem and build a lousy self-image. We see ourselves as inferior when we try to compare with others.
Hence, from today on, don’t compare yourself with others. Stop listening to how others want you to be. This your life and you get to decide how you want to live it.
Les Brown was labeled as a “mentally retarded” kid in school. But that didn’t stop him from becoming one of the most successful motivational speakers in the world. His teacher once told him:
Don’t let someone else’s opinion of you become your reality.
And that’s all it takes for Les to change, and to decide what kind of life he wanted to live and start acting and working for the future he wanted.
What about you? Are you living someone else’s opinion of you and let it become your reality? Or do you take charge of your life and live it your way?
Another common bad behavior that most people have is negative thinking. They tend to think negatively about every situation.
When they want to invest in the stock market, one part of them is telling them to stop because the stock market can crash, and they can get burned.
When they want to start an internet business, they doubt themselves and make excuses like they don’t have the time or skill to do it.
Are you someone like this? If you do, it is time to make a change.
Be aware and examine your thoughts. Are you making excuses, and do you always blame someone else when problems arise?
If you do, change the bad behavior.
Thinking negatively will only guarantee your failure. For every problem, obstacle, or difficulty you face in your journey, understand that there are hundreds of others who have faced a similar situation and managed to get over it.
Therefore, stop making excuses. Do not blame, instead, learn to take full responsibility for your life.
Are you spending too much time with toxic people? If you do, you’re not going to get ahead in life. Spending time with negative people only makes you feel negative and it sucks the positive energy out of you.
Imagine you went out with a bunch of toxic friends. Instead of talking about positive and constructive topics, you guys talked about other people. How Jenny got back with her ex and what has happened to John and Kelly in the office.
You wasted 3 hours gossiping and talking about other people. When you get home, you feel tired and no exhausted. You don’t feel productive or motivated to work.
Guess what, you have just injected 3 hours of toxic into your mind. And it has affected your energy level and your emotion.
This is why you should stop this bad behavior of overspending your time with negative and toxic people. If you can’t get rid of them, try to cut down your time spent with them.
You become who you spend the most time with.
Procrastinating isn’t fun, especially if you are procrastinating on works that you need to get done. You only delay doing it and leave it until the last minute.
It makes you feel stressed and it is exhausting. I bet you have the experience of burning the midnight oil to study when you are at school. It doesn’t feel good, isn’t it?
Not only that burning midnight oil and procrastination is bad to your physical health, but it is also mentally draining.
If you are someone who always puts things off until the last minute, you need to make a change.
Think about your goals. Do you procrastinate on your goals? If you do, you need to learn how to master yourself and stop the bad behavior of procrastination.
Instead of leaving things until the last minute, plan ahead so that you can anticipate it earlier. Write down what you need to get done. Get an accountability partner and commit to your goals.
Procrastination delays your goals and dreams. It is a bad behavior you must tackle to move forward in life.
Read: 10 Reasons Why People Procrastinate and How To Overcome It
This may not be a usual habit that you will notice, but you need to be aware of it. We often get used to what we do, and we tend to become addicted to comfort.
Just like blogging, I love blogging and I have been doing it for years. And because of this, I’m comfortable with writing and publishing on my blog, with words. But when it comes to YouTube and creating videos, I feel uncomfortable and refuse to change.
I know that if I want to tap into a bigger market and grow my online presence, I need to enter the video platform, which is YouTube. But I’m afraid to do it because I’m being too comfortable with articles, but not so with videos.
Hence, you have to be aware of your comfort zone. You need to always be growing if you want to experience and truly live life.
You can’t just do what you are always comfortable about and ignore other things that you are unfamiliar with. The only way to grow is through venturing into the unknown and doing something new.
If you continue to do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten.
Unless you make a change, everything is going to stay the same.
Ask yourself, do you like your life right now? If you don’t, get out of your comfort zone, do something uncomfortable, do something new, and experience changes in your life.
Don’t fall into the trap of being comfortable and stop growing. It is a bad habit that most people aren’t aware about.
Read: 10 Ways to Challenge Yourself and Find Real Improvement
Do you take things for granted and don’t show your appreciation? This is what happens when people get used to what they have in life.
When they are living in comfort, they tend to grow used to it and start to take it for granted. When something is taken from them or they lose it, they blame and point fingers at others.
For example, imagine your blog is getting most of the traffic from Google. You are making a decent income from advertisements from your blog. One day, Google changes its algorithm, and all of a sudden, your blog’s traffic drops to near zero.
Are you going to blame Google?
This is true, it has happened to many bloggers out there, including my blog, this blog.
Since then, I learned that I should rely on just one traffic source. And I learned to not take things for granted.
The good times may not last forever. And you have to always be prepared and plan ahead.
And, if you are having good times now, be thankful and appreciate what you have. Because when you celebrate what you have, you tend to have more.
This is a big mistake most people make. They think they have all the time in the world, and they don’t appreciate the time they have.
When you squander your time and you don’t appreciate it, you will slowly make it a bad behavior to waste more time. Don’t! Here’s a meaningful quote from Bruce Lee:
If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
Bruce Lee
So, don’t do things to kill time. Time will kill you. Instead, plan and live a proactive life. Don’t wait for things to happen. Go and make things happen.
Stop thinking that you always have tomorrow, because you don’t.
Another bad habit people often repeat is they don’t take care of their wellbeing, both physically and mentally.
Answer these 2 questions below:
From your answer, you can tell if you are someone who cares about your physical and mental health.
If you want to achieve your goals, become productive, have more energy and motivation, and succeed in life, you need to invest time in your physical fitness and grow your mental power.
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