8 habits to break for a more fulfilling life

There are habits that move us forward in life and habits that hold us back. 

In this article I’m going to go over eight common habits that sabotage our progress and how to fix them.

Watch out for these hateful eight. 

1) Procrastination 

How many times have you put off for tomorrow what you should have done today?

Well, I should have written this article yesterday, so let’s start there!

Procrastination is such a bad habit. It becomes addictive and it really sneaks up on you, making everything so much more stressful than it has to be. 

How to fix this bad habit: 

The next time you find yourself making an excuse, get up and do it anyway. 

If you don’t, hold yourself accountable or find somebody else who will. For real. 

2) Overthinking 

Overthinking is dangerous for your health. 

There needs to be a balance. 

When you don’t think enough or are reckless and impulsive, you end up putting yourself at risk and doing stupid things. 

But when you think too much you get paralyzed in inaction and stuck in your head. 

Depression, frustration and confusion are generally the result. 

Stop overthinking! It’s horrible. 

How to fix this bad habit: 

Think over decisions carefully, then act. 

If you find yourself rethinking, act anyway. Unless you have new information to consider there is no need to rehash decisions or past regrets over and over. 

If you find yourself overthinking matters that are out of your control, take a cold shower and do 50 pushups. 

3) Victimology 

The next of the bad habits to break for a more fulfilling life is victimology. 

This is the habit of seeing yourself as a victim and even intentionally playing the victim to manipulate others or get your way. 

Being a victim can become an extremely bad habit, because even though we all get treated unfairly and unjustly in life, when you embrace the role of a victim you can become addicted. 

You will often start to subconsciously pursue and even seek out being a victim, believing it gives you power or moral sway. 

Instead, emphasizing victimhood all too often ends up increasing it or leading to uncomfortable and toxic situations. 

How to fix this bad habit:

Volunteer to help people less fortunate than yourself in some way. Spend time among those who are suffering and find a way to focus on the hardships of others instead of only your own. 

You will see that as awful as your own struggle is, it is not as unique or solitary as you might think at times. 

4) Overindulgence 

The next of the habits to break for a more fulfilling life is overindulgence. 

This can be in almost any area where you treat yourself too luxuriously for your own good:

• Overeating
• Over-relaxing
• Sex addiction
• Pornography addiction
• Gambling
• Alcoholism
• Drug addiction

The list goes on. 

If you find that you’re engaging in behavior as an escape outlet from facing yourself or doing what you need to do, you need to take a long, hard look at it. 

How to fix this bad habit:

Grant yourself one overindulgence a week. If you eat a lot of ice cream on Tuesday night? That’s it for the week!

Any other overindulgence and you’re looking at an accountability partner or a consequence of some kind. Most logically, for every additional overindulgence, you get zero the following week. 

5) Respect-seeking 

The next of the very nasty habits to break for a more fulfilling life is respect-seeking.

Many of us learn at a young age that we should seek approval and respect from those around us. 

This is reinforced in many educational systems and by many cultures. 

The problem is that it can end up creating people pleasers with no sense of security and decisiveness inside themselves. 

You know what I mean:

You want to do something or dress a certain way or date someone, but you want to check what everyone else thinks first…

Big mistake!

Respect-seeking behavior always results in losing your self-respect. 

How to fix this bad habit:

Be true to yourself and frame your reality around you and what you want, not whether or not other people approve of what you’re doing or whether it’s popular. 

6) Telling lies 

Telling lies can become a very bad habit because it’s very easy to do. 

The fact of the matter is that lies are like anything else: practice makes perfect.

You start with a few little white lies here and there, and in a few years you find yourself lying about an affair…

You tell a lie to yourself about being happy in your job and a few years later you’re in a psychologist’s office suffering from severe depression.

Even lies that don’t get exposed often end up taking a huge toll. 

That’s why the vast majority of lies are something you should avoid. 

Unless you’re telling a necessary lie to avoid a worse disaster, like trying not to freak your kid out about a disease they have that might be very serious but keep the serious part under wraps for now…

Avoid lying! 

How to fix this bad habit:

Every time you lie to yourself or somebody else for anything other than a fully moral reason that even a saint would agree with, donate $5 to a charity of your choice. It’s going to a good cause, and maybe you’ll start to watch your lies more carefully and avoid them.

7) Impulsiveness 

The next of the awful habits to break for a more fulfilling life is impulsiveness. 

When you go on a spontaneous road trip or kiss somebody you’ve always had a crush on, that’s one thing!

Some spontaneity is a great thing…

But too much impulsiveness will land you in a world of trouble:

What’s that one extra donut going to hurt? Or even maybe one or two more after that?

Why not just sleep with this person you don’t really like, even if you know they are really emotionally needy and will hassle you for months afterwards?

Watch out about being impulsive! It’ll derail your life! 

How to fix this bad habit:

Begin writing out a daily schedule and follow it. Stop doing impulsive things that could be risky unless you have a very good or compelling reason to do so and you’ve thought it through beforehand. 

8) Yessing 

The last of the bad habits to break for a more fulfilling life is what I call “yessing.”

This is the instinct of saying yes to people and offers for fear of offending others or disappointing them. 

It relates to respect-seeking, but it’s more specific:

When you say yes and are afraid to say no, you put yourself last and you embark on a disempowering quest to ruin your life. 

Stop saying yes to everything:

The power of no is truly magnificent in some situations. 

How to fix this bad habit:

The next time somebody offers you a job, a relationship, an opportunity or an item you don’t want, respectfully decline. Practice just saying no!