Inculcating new good habits isn’t always the key to lead a healthy life. Eliminating the bad ones is also an effective method. While there are many things that prevent us from having that ‘perfect’ life we aspire to live, these are the certain seven things you should immediately avoid doing to get started with your ‘ideal’ life.
1. Using Foul Language
Frustration, disappointment and outrage many-a-time result in people using foul language to express their emotion. Swearing becomes a major part of our life, and you blurt out words unintentionally, often at inappropriate times. Well, the best method to avoid using cuss words is to exercise empathy
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and think of how they would feel if they were listening to the bad words coming from your mouth. If you can do this little trick, it will be a good start in helping you to avoid using bad words.
2. Giving Excuses
Excuses can hold us back leaving us in the massive cycle of procrastination. So to achieve the results you want, you need to ditch all the excuses. Invalidating our purposes and the calling leads to the excuses coming up one after the other. Own your life; no one else will.
3. Multi-Tasking
Being fully present and committed to one task is indispensable. Set your priorities and get going on only one thing. No matter what, no human can do two or more tasks together with 100% attention to each; it is simply impossible. Plan in advance, take out time for everything and work on one at a time. Block off as many sources of distraction as possible when you are working on something important. Shut your office door, turn off the phone and turn off email notifications.
As difficult as it seems, it isn’t. Plus, the results are worth it. Simply practicing single-tasking over time can help you to better focus and weed out distractions.
4. Smoking
Studies have shown that the risk of dying increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Smoking just 10 per cigarettes per day doubles your risk of dying and smoking more than 25 cigarettes a day increases your risk of dying four-fold compared to those who have never smoked.
If you’ve thrown away your cigarette packet and spent the last few days smoke-free, then congratulations! You’ve already started on the road to a healthier smoke-free life. But we get it; addiction doesn’t go away in a flash of a second. Try e-cig as an alternative if it is difficult to quit over a longer duration of time. It is comparatively less harmful than smoking.
5. Need To Be Liked By Everyone
Think of yourself as a market niche. There will be a lot of people who like that niche, and there will be individuals who don’t. And no matter what you do, you won’t be able to make the entire market like you. This is entirely natural, and there’s no need to justify yourself.
The only thing you can do is remain authentic, improve and provide value every day, and know that the growing number of “haters” means that you are doing important things.
6. Dependency On Social Media And Television
How many times have you felt the urge to log in within a certain period of time? If it is quite a lot of times then beware! Impulsive web browsing and television watching are diseases of today’s society. These two should never be an escape from your life or your goals. Unless your goals depend on either, you should minimize (or even eliminate) your dependency on them, and direct that time towards things that can enrich your life.
7. The Toxic People
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” ―Jim Rohn
The dynamic in real life too mimics this caption: In everyone’s life, there will always be ‘toxic’ people who will resist, threaten and sabotage the possibility of self-improvement.
People we spend the most time with, add up to who we become. If you spend time with people who are more accomplished than you, then you will strive to reach their level of success, thus propelling you ahead professionally and personally. Take a look at around you, and see if you need to make any changes.
These changes all start with this one word: compassion. Without compassion, you’re stuck in a cycle of fear and excuses. Compassion allows the love to flow through. It allows you to show up, be authentic, and create the life you want for yourself.
With all the compassion and courage, go ahead and make these small changes in your life. You’d soon start to see a positive effect and a more rational view towards life. It won’t be boring anymore. Every day you’d want to be better and so you’d indeed live a better life!
Mila Jones is a Senior Business Consultant, Technology. With rich experience in the domains of technology consulting and strategy, she works with both established technology brands and market entrants to offer research inputs and insights on leveraging technology as a source of strategic competitive advantage. She is a prolific author and shares her expertise with tech enthusiasts on popular digital publishing platforms.
