Seven Daily Habits To Remove For Success

We all have certain tendencies or habits that build up over time. Some push us towards our life goals and others detract from them. Others are just bad all around regardless of our own goals. These need to be stopped to improve our connections with others and increase our opportunity for success.

Our daily habits and actions are the most important as they have the greatest direct impact on our life direction. The occasional bad habit or indulgence can be overcome easily with quality daily practices. The 7 negative daily habits covered in this article will hinder your success at every stage of your life.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

-Aristotle

Impatience leading to browsing. This one is difficult mentally because we feel like we are "multi-tasking" and being more productive. However this situation is happening far too often and has disastrous effects on your performance. There are many studies stating different figures but they all agree that it takes at least 15 minutes to fully engage and focus on a task. In other words, while waiting for an instant message reply from your manager, the instant feeling of boredom seeping in causes you to browse the web or your phone for 2 minutes while waiting. Productive with your time yes? Actually, no it's not at all. This quick divergence and lack of patience has caused a 15 minute lapse of focus when re-engaging your original task you were messaging on.

This is just one of countless examples of our smartphone and internet connected lives leading to a massive impatience. The supposed hyper-productivity and multi-tasking is in fact sabotaging our efforts at completing successful projects. Have you finished your work day and felt like you didn't achieve anything? That is a direct result of this habit.

Notification overload. This bad habit is another pervasive one as we feel productive while performing the action. One look at the ultra successful will tell you otherwise. Not one of them has email, text, Facebook, or LinkedIn notifications on their phones or laptops. They check all accounts personally managed once an hour, or twice a day. This is by far a more productive method and better use of your time. Not to mention the secondary benefit of massive stress and anxiety reduction, which we could all use.

Dwelling on negativity. We all have negative situations and people come up on a daily basis. That co-worker who made an inappropriate or rude comment. The string of red lights on the daily commute. The unfair assignment of work load on your team leaving you with the lions share of projects. Lets not forget that toxic individual you have in your life that you can't remove due to work or family ties. The key to all of these elements out of your control is to give yourself a "moment" of frustration. Maybe a quick internal expletive and rant. Then immediately move on. Dwelling on negativity will inadvertently cause you to become that toxic person that everyone else has to deal with.

Multitasking during team meetings. A cardinal sin if I've ever seen one in an office. Especially when the meeting is in person and not remote. Seeing someone responding to chat, email, or other notifications on their laptop in the boardroom in some company culture's is grounds for dismissal. In nearly every office it's going to prevent you from moving up the corporate ladder. Not to mention ever looking at your smartphone or leaving it on the conference room table. Turn it off, leave it in the pocket. If you need to use your laptop for notes or to present, turn off all notifications. Give respect to the meeting and material presented and receive many benefits in your daily and long term work life. This includes the dreaded remote meeting or conference call.

Checking your phone or smartwatch during a conversation. The biggest negative impression of them all. As tempting as it is to scratch that itch don't ever be that person. It is the ultimate "no-no" in professional and personal conversation etiquette. Regardless of your incredible ability to multitask and process the conversation and the incoming text the offensive nature of the act will remain. It doesn't matter whether you can do it effectively or not. It matters that you aren't completely focused on the real person and conversation right in front of you.

Screen time before bed. In the modern age of technology there have been so many benefits. Like anything, it is a double edged sword. The sleeping industry has taken off in recent years with incredible growth. Everything from high end mattresses, to cooling pads, to heating pads, to over the counter and even prescription sleeping medications. In an age with so much technology and innovation why are people sleeping so poorly? It's directly because of this technology sadly enough. Our brains are naturally programmed through thousands of years of evolution to trigger hormone and brain functions that promote sleep when blue light reduction occurs. This is naturally when the sun goes down. However technology has created massive amounts of this light through laptops, televisions, and smartphones. One quick look may trick your brain to reset this natural wind down causing hours of sleeplessness.

Drinking cold water. Of all the items on this list this is the one that usually receives the most negativity. Yet, it is the easiest to change and has a large bio-hacking benefit. You see this habit, especially first thing in the morning, to drink a cool glass of water has many negative effects on your body. Drinking cool water forces your body to use energy to warm the fluid. It also can cause stomach irritability. Not to mention a natural contraction of the muscles. There are a dozen other potentially negative effects that I won't list here. Basically it is a bad idea for your mind and body unless it is an excessively hot day. Drinking enough water is key to a healthy life, just switch to room temperature and enjoy even more benefits.

Lack of internal dialogue. This is one of the most powerful daily habit changes you can make. It is responsible for many a ridiculously success individual's rise to glory. You can achieve this daily habit with many different methods. Tony Robbins might be the most popular as he starts every day (before looking at a screen) with 15 minutes of meditation. He isn't wasting these 15 minutes however, he is conducting an internal dialogue of his goals and pursuits in life for the day. You can do this through his method of mediation, or utilize any other number of tools. Many others prefer yoga to meditating. Others prefer prayer in order to voice their dialogue out loud. Regardless of your preferred method, starting your day with positive internal conversation and deep thought will have an immediate and lasting impact on your life.

Daily habits make up who we are in the short and long-term measure of our life. It is directly how we are perceived while forming the string of events that lead us to the major achievements or disappointments of our life. Focusing on these 7 habits and turning them into positives will shift your direction and fulfillment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Benjamin Russell is the Founder of the Lifestyle Rebellion Global Movement. He has written numerous articles, training manuals, and extensive course content on multiple subjects. The creation of the Lifestyle Rebellion has led Benjamin to focus on this single brand and divert his full attention to the implementation and support of this Movement. This includes a steady stream of free content. Follow him on all channels and discover how many are creating a living wage for themselves.