These Success-Destroying Habits Are Holding You Back

These Success-Destroying Habits Are Holding You Back

Look at your own behaviors and habits before you look externally for your problems

Sometimes uncontrollable aspects of life will lead to failure.

Such as unexpected plagues that force your customer base to stay indoors.

Yet most reasons people don’t accomplish what they set out to do are actually pretty mundane. Luckily, that means they are easily fixed.

You consume more than you produce

Be honest with yourself. How much time do you spend on social media and video streaming a day?

One hour?

Four hours?

More?

Even when we don’t spend several consecutive hours on entertainment, our constant “breaks” to check Twitter or watch a cat pounce on a baby interrupt our flow.

This disruption to our working time makes it harder to finish as much as we desire during the day.

Also, your brain is part of your body. Feeding it nothing but junk (yes, you know exactly what I mean by that) doesn’t do it much good in the long run.

No one is saying you can’t watch a predictable slasher, but you can’t do that and still say, “I wish I had the time to work on my dream project.”

You did, and you wasted it watching an inappropriately-dressed college girl get stabbed.

Try to be careful with your consumption habits and clear more time in your schedule and your brain for the useful stuff.

Appearances can be deceiving… BUT not always

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” is a common saying. However, if you walk into a bookstore you are absolutely going to grab whichever cover looks coolest.

It doesn’t mean you’ll like it once you read it, but name one modern book that you picked up even though the title was bad and the cover bland.

I’ll wait.

Publishers wouldn’t pay whole departments to come up with covers if it didn’t matter. Which is why you should pay attention to how you present yourself to the world.

This means basics like wearing clothes that fit well, brushing your hair, keeping your teeth as clean as possible, and so forth.

Humans make a lot of snap judgments on someone based on their looks. By ignoring this reality you make it harder to succeed.

If this makes you angry, I understand. But then ask yourself if you would hand over your money to someone who looks like they’ve given up on themselves. My guess is you wouldn’t.

It doesn’t make them a bad person, but it does make you question whether they can deliver on their promises when they can’t deliver on wearing a clean shirt.

I (don’t) like the way you don’t move it move it

Get out of a funk by getting on your feet.

Then move those feet in a repetitive pattern. Preferably for 20 minutes or more.

Exercise or moving in general keeps your body in working order. You don’t have to work out to get Harlequin romance hero abs. Simply going for a daily walk has been proven to improve your mood and productivity.

If you find yourself unable to focus then stop, go outside, and smell the air (unless your forest is on fire, in which case watch a workout video or invest in a treadmill).

How good are those lifestyle habits of yours?

There are two things you must do every day. Find sustenance and sleep.

Yet many of us do this quite badly. And it shows.
When you eat garbage your stomach bloats, your intestines gurgle, and your blood sugar spikes.

Because our bodies are attempting to process the bad stuff, our brains don’t get the good stuff. If you’ve ever been trying to concentrate and had your head full of what can only be described as “fog” you understand how impossible it is to focus when you aren’t well-nourished.

Sleep presents the same problem. I’m not going to sing the praise of getting up early here. What’s more important is that you maintain a consistent sleep cycle. For reasons of stress, work, or just plain ignorance, people believe they can go to sleep whenever they want to and be fine.

But it simply isn’t true.

As an adult, your body needs that precious 6-8 hours of snoozing, during the same timeframe.

Scientists still don’t know why we literally will die without it, but they have only recently discovered the brain seemingly does a “cleaning out of toxins” procedure during a restful night.

Sleeping too little or at odd hours, messes with our bodies and leaves us feeling jet-lagged. Our internal clocks are off and our body has to try to reset it. This means we are busy being tired, not accomplishing our goals for the day.

Adjust your attitude

It’s 2020 and it’s official, you want nothing to do with authority. Having someone tell you what to do may make you want to scream.

Or perhaps you are one of those people who constantly moan how unfair everything is.

Yet you have to get over it. Having a bad attitude makes you poisonous to everyone around you.

Try to be positive when interacting with others, particularly if you want to do work with them. No one wants to collaborate with a toxic person.

Analyze the company you keep

Though it seems cheesy, we are indeed the sum of the people we hang out with. That’s why birds of a feather congregate together.
Those with drive have drinks and talk about their latest business ventures. The less-driven have drinks and talk about movies they plan on seeing.

The goal-orientated encourage each other to go out there and earn more, the less-goal-oriented call their friends who try to make money, sell-outs.

You need to examine whom you are hanging out with and recognize if they are keeping you from your goals with their own attitudes. You don’t have to cut them out completely, but try to find new friends who don’t make you feel crappy about pursuing your dreams or having hope.

***

Most of us have the same odds of succeeding. The one thing separating you from your dreams may not be circumstances outside your control, but your own negative thoughts and bad habits. Fix those before you look to external factors and you’ll see improvements far more quickly.