We all think about success. We all plan to become successful. But why is it that only 2% succeed and the rest keep struggling? Only desiring and planning will never bring in success. It’s the hard work, consistency, and disciplined life that lands you on the path of success. But do you know what hinders the route to success? The Bad Habits! Yes, your success slows down when you are stuck with bad habits. Warren Buffet once said, “Bad habits are like chains that are too light to feel until they are too heavy to carry.”
So, if you wish to succeed in your life, and accelerate your progress, you need to get rid of the bad habits. Some of the most common bad habits are listed below.
You Waste Time on Unproductive Activities
Well, you are aware of the unproductive things. Watching TV for long hours, hanging out with friends for days, spending too much time on social media, chatting, texting, etc. These are the most unproductive activities that do not contribute to your growth.
Oh yes, if you watch the news to get the latest market updates, talk to friends to discuss your career, or spend time on social media to promote your business, then it’s an altogether different story. Sparing some time of the day on such activities is fine, do not invest hours into them.
Your Day Starts with Negative Thinking
Many people start their day reading a newspaper. But the newspapers these days are filled with negative news. So, I agree your day is bound to start with negative thoughts. But you can change this habit. How do you change it?
Well, you simply read the articles that are useful to you. Search for columns that refresh your mind. Avoid watching or reading negative news (crime, murder, theft, etc.)
Also, Do not accept “No” for an answer without attempting to ask. Practice affirmations daily. You’ll start thinking positively.
You Do Not Plan Beforehand
Of course, planning itself means getting organized beforehand. But you aren’t organizing your activities on your schedule. For instance, you have an upcoming event but aren’t ready with your presentation.
Before preparing for a presentation, you are not even aware of what has to be included in it. So, this is where the planning begins. You need to collect the relevant data beforehand so that you can design your presentation. Without the facts, details, and analysis will you be able to give the presentation? No! Then, you must work on planning, scheduling, and implementing.
Not being organized before the actual event is one of the bad habits that can cost you a lot.
Reading isn’t Your habit
Yes, one of the bad habits is not reading enough. Reading motivating books and blogs enlighten you. Reading expands your knowledge base. You learn new things about life when you read good authors.
Reading will help you to understand what mistakes you are making in your life. It will also guide you on how to avoid them. When you already know how to avoid the mistakes, you won’t repeat them in your life. Reading always keeps you one step ahead in life.
You Do Not Keep Yourself Updated
It is related to the points mentioned above. Reading and watching the news always help you in staying updated. Imagine you are a businessman, but if you aren’t habituated to read or watch business news. How will you learn how’s the economy performing?
Today we have various online mediums that help us to stay updated. Subscribe to a reliable medium and get helpful updates in seconds. It will help you to take effective actions for your business.
You Do Not Analyze the Repercussions of your Actions
Success isn’t spoon-fed. You have to excel at what you do, only then success will follow. But you need to know what could be the outcome of your actions if they aren’t aligned with your goal and objectives.
For instance, if you are cooking a new dish. And you wish to experiment with new ingredients and condiments. But you aren’t sure how it would taste eventually. What if the dish turns out disastrous? Who will eat? So, before you decide to incorporate the changes, make sure you analyze the consequences. Make the changes to the dish with limited twists. While cooking the dish at least ensure it is edible and not a total failure.
You are Fearful of Everything
I agree, when first you start a job or business, you get anxious. But if anxiety persists on every task you take up then you may lack confidence in yourself. Being fearful of every action you take is one of the bad habits that can lead to demoralization.
Fear kills the joy of progress. Avoid contemplating about every minute detail. Focus on your goal. Failures are a part of success. If you are failing it means you have a scope of improvement. So, pull your socks up and work towards your target.
You are in the Wrong Friend Circle
No doubt, friends are an important part of life. But they have to be contributing to your success. How is that possible? Well, there is an old saying- “a man is known by the company he keeps”. What does this mean?
Your ability, personality, and character are defined by the choice of your friends. If you hang out with loser friends you will never succeed in life. That’s because unsuccessful people never provide valuable advice. They will try to pull you down if you are climbing the ladder of success. So, having bad company in your life is one of the bad habits that can stagnate your success.
You Don’t Bounce Back After a Failure
One of the bad habits that hold you back is that you give up too easily. You succumb to despair and that takes away the motivation of trying again. It is very easy to lose hope but it is always in your best interest to fight back.
You Don’t Manage your Finances Well
It is easy to fall prey to your desires and wants. Once you achieve some success, you start believing that you won’t fail in the future. So, when you lose the vision, you get sidetracked. You start spending lavishly.
When the mismanagement of finances seeps in, you lose hold of your progress. In times of need, you are left with limited funds for investment. That’s where you start climbing down the success ladder. Being frugal and managing finances efficiently is the key to success.
You Don’t Use Motivational Drivers
Every aspirant who wishes to build a wealthy empire has motivational drivers. Some people keep working on their motivators and accomplish their goals. While some lag because they have no clarity or purpose in their life.
Lack of clarity means there is no motivational driver in your life. The motivational drivers could be anything that will drive you towards your success. The desire to surpass your competitor, the desire to have a specific amount in your bank, the desire to be a philanthropist, and much more. All these count as driving factors of motivation. So, what drives you towards success?
You Get Complacent After a Small Achievement
I believe complacency is one of the bad habits that makes you indolent. Accomplishing smaller goals is easy but to maintain the pace of success, you need to be consistent with your efforts.
On achieving short-term goals many start believing that they have managed to crack the business code. But in reality, some gain short term success just by fluke. It doesn’t necessarily mean you will continue to grow in life. Avoid being complacent and keep working towards growth.
You Invest Money in Wrong Assets
Assets are of two types one is depreciating and the other is appreciating. You as an investor need to analyze which asset is worth investing in. For instance, some people prefer buying a property that is an appreciating asset and others prefer buying a car that is a depreciating asset.
Now, here is the twist! If you bought the property for personal use, it won’t generate profits as such. But if you bought a car to put into commercial use (car rental or car-on-hire), then you will make profits. That’s how you need to study the assets and make use of the money to grow.
You Don’t Keep a Track of your Progress
Measuring your growth is crucial to understand where you are going wrong if you have been at the same level for one year or more. I would suggest tracking your progress every quarter to study where you stand in the competition.
Not keeping a track of your growth is one of the bad habits that will make you pay in the long run. Look into the matters that are impeding your success. It is the best way to learn what changes can roll you back in the best form.
You have No Idea About Your Liabilities
Sometimes you invest in something that proves a liability in the later stage. But you should be aware of what is consuming you. Where your money is being invested? And are you genuinely reaping benefits? The answers to these questions must be favorable.
If you have no idea about the liabilities, you will never succeed. The liabilities keep piling up and you’ll keep losing money. So, get rid of this bad habit and keep a track of your liabilities. Take efforts to reduce them and save money for better future investments.
You Don’t Focus on Health and Fitness
We all know ‘Health is Wealth’. Then if you do not stay fit, how will you succeed? Bad health will increase your medical expenses. If not now, then when you become a senior citizen, you will face severe health issues. And eventually, you will be giving out your hard-earned money to health care professionals.
So, what is the point of making money, if you are to spend it on restoring your health? Hence, you must focus on your health now, when you in your early 20s or 30s. Join a gym, hire a fitness trainer, practice yoga at home, or join a Zumba group. But make sure, you take care of your body and boost your health.
Humans Can’t Multitask: But you Try to Multitask
Multitasking is one of the bad habits that ruin every task you work on. Experts say you aren’t really multitasking when you perform two or more jobs at a time. You are ideally just switching between the jobs.
It actually distracts you from doing the job efficiently. You get confused when juggling between two tasks and your productivity gets affected. You need to schedule the tasks and perform them one at a time. Always remember, quality of work and focus matter the most when you wish to succeed in life.
You Procrastinate A Lot
I came across a nice thought somewhere, it read- “If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s possible. But, if you schedule it, it’s for real”. Don’t you think it’s a most promising thought? If you wish to do something, act on it now. Do not put off till tomorrow.
The more you delay the work, the more you’ll regret it later. Draft a plan and schedule it. For instance, if you want to get certification in something, get the details of that course online. Read relevant books. Once you get familiar with the subject you can join a tutoring class of your choice. Every single step towards success is important, but you should not delay starting with the first step.
You Say Yes to Please Every Client
When you are into a business, negotiation skills play a significant role. Many clients will often ask you to continue trading at the same cost, without even considering the inflation cost. Ask yourself, is it going to be feasible for you to run a business at a break-even point or loss?
So, if you notice that you are being downplayed in the business, take action immediately. You do not have to give in to your client’s expectations every time. Say No whenever you feel you are being fooled. Say yes when you are able to manage the business without running into losses. It’s a tricky game to manage a balance between ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ responses.
You Lack Adaptability to Changes
In simple words, you aren’t flexible enough to go adjust to the changes. For instance, you have a warehouse and you have the option to change the staff to robotic assistance. But you aren’t sure whether it will be helpful in the long run. Since it also involves huge investment.
But you know you are going to expand, so you may need more manpower. So, eventually hiring costs and training costs will be doubled. Instead, if you hire robotic assistance, you can cut short the salary expenses. But you do not wish to adapt to the change because you have a fear of mismanagement in the functions in the initial stages. Hence, adjusting to the new technology looks like a barrier to you.
You Take Impulsive Decisions
A successful man feeds his brain with the right thoughts. He keeps himself calm in tough situations. Every business has its ups and downs. Like every employee faces a problem in his daily tasks. But you can’t take a right stand if you aren’t clear about the real issue.
Many employees quit the job due to stress. Many businessmen sell their assets to raise quick funds. Oftentimes these are impulsive decisions to come out of a bad situation. So, if you wish to succeed you cannot take decisions haphazardly. You need to study the intensity of the situation and tackle it by staying collected.
You Never De-Clutter Your Mind
A stressed mind cannot take good decisions. If you have hundreds of thoughts running through your mind, it means you are distracted. You have to be focused at work. So, you need to free up your mind from unwanted thoughts.
How to do that? Practice meditation. Believe me, you can perform meditation from any place. Be it in an office, park, balcony, or even a study room, any place will work if it has no distractions. But meditation is a must to calm your mind and body.
You Seek Advice from Wrong People
This is the worst mistake you can ever do to yourself. If someone does not know how to run a business, how will he help you? Do you think that advice will have any weightage? Seek advice from people who have been through the struggle.
Take suggestions from people who are in the same business as you are. Or ask for recommendations from people in a similar field. Someone who is already a failure cannot give you better advice (I know this sounds harsh). Instead, they will discourage you, and pull you down to their level.
You Cry Foul and Blame Others
It’s funny when you know you were at the fault, yet you do not want to accept it. Many times, in your personal life, you lose something valuable and you feel it’s an injustice to you. So, you blame others for your disappointment.
This bad habit can hinder your success to a great level. If you know you have done something wrong admit it. Look for solutions and work on them. Do not blame others. If you were hurt by someone, the universe will take care of them. You keep your focus on the work intact.
You are Addicted to Psychotropic Substances
Intoxication is not just injurious to health but it also slows down your decision-making power. How? Well, you cannot think straight when you are inebriated. You Take wrong decisions when you are under influence.
Stop consuming psychoactive substances that may harm your progress. If you have been addicted for too long then seek medical advice. But if you are just exposed to the consumption then stop using it immediately before you get obsessed about it.
