Marcel Deer
What do you dream of?
Are you hoping to become wildly rich and successful?
Maybe your goal is a marvelously happy home life with a fantastic family.
Perhaps you have a remarkable career set in your sights.
Whatever success means to you, you can get there.
Sometimes, the only thing keeping us from getting what we want is our own behavior, but the good news is that our behavior can be changed.
So, if you really want to achieve your dreams, say goodbye to these 12 habits.
1) Smoking
Come on, let’s start with one of the hardest habits to kick first.
Despite 68% of smokers saying they want to quit, less than 10% of smokers are able to quit each year.
Smoking is not only physically addictive; it can be a mental habit that’s hard to break, as well as a part of your persona that you may not be able or ready to change.
But change it, you should.
Vice taxes on cigarettes can end your hard-earned cash up in smoke.
The known health effects of smoking include a greatly increased risk of cancer and heart disease.
But on top of all of that, quitting smoking is hugely empowering, and when you finally do it, you’ll feel like you can do anything else in this life.
2) Drinking too much
There’s a lot of debate about whether a small alcohol intake is good or bad for you.
But nobody denies that drinking tons is damaging.
Here’s a direct quote from the CDC:
“Excessive alcohol use, or drinking too much alcohol, accounts for an estimated 1 in 5 deaths among adults aged 20–49 years.”
While it can have a fun effect on the brain, alcohol is poisonous, as anyone who’s ever had a terrible hangover can attest to. It has short- and long-term effects on your health.
But it also affects your lifestyle and can stand in the way of achieving your goals.
It can make you stay up way too late, miss out on sleep, lose full days to hangovers, and also engage in high-risk behavior.
If you know you’re drinking too much, try to cut back a little at a time, and I promise you’ll see positive changes in your life.
3) Staying up too late
On average, adults need seven to eight hours of good sleep a night to be mentally and physically healthy.
Are you consistently getting less than this?
Sleep deficit can affect your memory, mood, and work performance.
So, if you’re depending on the power of your magnificent mind to get you closer to your dreams, treat it to more sleep.
Try to go to bed just 30 minutes earlier for one week, and you’ll already see results that will make you happier and healthier.
4) Sleeping in
Is there such a thing as too much sleep?
Maybe, but sleeping in is more about motivation than getting the sleep you need.
Sure, you can catch up on a deficit by sleeping in sometimes, but if you kick the habit of staying up too late, sleeping in should be the next to go.
They say the early bird catches the worm, and if you’re looking to get one step closer to your dreams, why not get up one hour earlier?
According to a poll, people are most effective in the morning, with effectiveness peaking at 10:00 a.m. This is after they’ve gotten up, gotten ready for their day, and are totally into the swing of things.
So try to ditch those extra snoozes on your alarm and see if getting up earlier doesn’t just boost your productivity.
5) Sitting around
Inactivity is bad for your mind and body.
Sitting around like a bump on a log, as my mother always used to say, might be a way to relax after a hard day of work.
But if Netflix on the sofa is your only leisure activity, you’re probably not living the full, rich life that you want. And it’s probably not taking you any closer to your goals.
If you’re sitting for large parts of your day, you’re also not getting the benefits of being active.
These only include improved memory, alertness, focus, and overall health – that’s all!
6) Going it alone
You don’t have to be a rock or an island.
What force on earth can be weaker than the feeble strength of one?
If you’re used to going your own way and being a lone wolf, remember that there is more strength in numbers.
There are people out there who will help you if you let them. There’s knowledge and wisdom to be tapped that you couldn’t collect on your own in a dozen lifetimes.
You can learn from people who’ve achieved what you’re dreaming of and mirror them. Use what they do as a model to copy and save yourself time and the pain of making all the mistakes they did.
7) Pleasing others
I’ve always been something of a people pleaser, and I admit it’s one of the things that has been a huge barrier in my life.
People pleasers try to make everyone else happy but at the expense of themselves and their own happiness.
We take on too much work because we’re afraid to say no to anyone.
We also follow in others’ footsteps and support others’ opinions to be seen as agreeable.
But all these behaviors might be taking us farther away from our own dreams rather than closer!
8) Blaming others
Yes, there are things in this life that are out of your control.
You can get bogged down in blaming your parents for a bad childhood, teachers for poor education, or the state for limiting your economic opportunities.
But if you think that everything is out of your hands, you’re denying yourself something important – personal power.
If you want to be powerful, you have to take responsibility for things that you can control and the choices that you make.
Once you do, you’ll find that your feelings of powerlessness disappear and are replaced with increased self-confidence and faith in your capacity to change your own life.
9) Wasting time
Do you really want to achieve your dreams?
Stop wasting time.
You might do a lot of nothing in your free time when you could be taking steps toward your goals.
The biggest culprit?
It’s probably your phone. We’re all spending more and more time using our smartphones and tablets and have become increasingly dependent on them.
But they’re the biggest time asters out there. Social media can sap both your time and energy, and it’s probably not contributing to that better life you’re looking for.
Set usage limits or just put your phone away when you normally wouldn’t, and I guarantee you you’ll have way more time on your hands.
10) Wasting money
Time may or may not be worth more than money, but it’s certainly not the only thing that can get wasted.
Money isn’t really paper in your wallet or numbers on a screen.
It’s about power, almost like a form of energy.
It gives you the ability to do things with other people’s productivity, and you work hard to get it.
So why would you ever waste it on things you don’t need?
The way you should be thinking about money is this.
When you look at buying something, ask yourself, “Does buying this take me closer or farther away from reaching my goals?”
That’s it – one simple question can help you rein in your spending and have more money to get to your dreams.
11) Associating with the “wrong kinds of people”
You know who I mean.
It doesn’t have to be toxic people who sap your energy and drag you down instead of lifting you up.
You definitely don’t need them in your life.
But the “wrong kinds of people” can also include anyone who’s directing you away from achieving your dreams.
It could be friends who drag you out clubbing when you need to be studying. Or it could be a partner who doesn’t share the same values and goals as you.
Your time in this world is short and precious, so stop wasting it on people who aren’t helping you live your best life.
12) Being negative
Negativity is a virus that can infect anything in its path.
And if you’re being negative in your own life, you’re keeping yourself infected with things like indecision, self-doubt, and even self-hate.
None of these things are going to help you get to your goals.
Quite the opposite – negativity is only going to drag you down, so cut it out of your life and your self-concept at every opportunity.
Conclusion
Say goodbye to these dirty dozen habits if you want to achieve your dreams. You’ll change your mind, health, and life in general and bring you closer to getting what you desire in this life.
