Negative Habits to Discard

“The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.“ ~Samuel Johnson

If you want to stay fresh, youthful, and alive in this world, forsake habits. Repetitive habits make us feel comfortable, and eventually lull us to sleep.

I’m not for removing all habits – just the ones that will rob you of success and happiness. Here are some examples:

Thinking Everyone Else Has More Success Than You. I love biographies and autobiographies. I love reading about how someone else became successful, but while I might get ideas from this reading, it doesn’t serve me until I implement it myself. Your story is just as important as theirs is. Keep track of your own good, your own successes. If you have a plan (you do, don’t you?) to achieve your own dream, respect your own path, your own story. Make working on your things the habit vs. applauding someone else. Work on it daily and with diligence. You’ll make yourself into someone else’s best story of success.

Is the Time Right Now? There is no such thing as waiting for that one, perfect moment. You take this very moment and you make it perfect. If you have a habit of waiting, the moment never will come and you’ll never accomplish what you’re here to do. Each of us has the ability to take any right now moment and make it perfect – perfect to begin, perfect to work, perfect to persevere. Don’t wait for it to be perfect. Make it perfect right now.

I Need This Money. I know a lady who had a long series of jobs. None of them was very satisfying to her, but, as she told me, she had kids to feed, rent to pay, food to buy, etc. It’s no wonder she was easily bored in every one of those jobs. She has a brilliant mind, and her mind needed to find its own dream, her own passion, and fully engage in what that way vs. just getting a paycheck. This is suffering and slavery and it’s a habit that deserves to be broken.

Find your passion. Pour your whole self into it. The money will be there because this kind of work creates the money into infinity and without worry. What’s your passion?
It’s Not About the Pretty. This is similar to thinking everyone else has more success than you. If you judge a person by appearance alone, you’re missing the biggest part of the picture. You’re missing what their character is, the pleasantness of their personality, their sense of fun, their sense of morality, their ideas about family…..just a whole passel of invisible qualities that do not show up in their picture. If you judge mainly by appearance, you will have to endure shallow relationships. If you change this habit and look for what’s inside, your relationships will be much more appealing. See if you can discover the commonality that drew you together in the first place.

Don’t Focus on Fears or Troubles. Hurry and worry are the world’s worst habits and they bear no fruit that is good. Have you ever brought joy into your life with hurry or worry? If you don’t consciously address these two troubles, you will have a fertile ground for fear to metastasize and for trouble to grow tall. You don’t always have to be right. You don’t always have to be the head of the class. You don’t have to be the youngest CEO. And if you think this, here’s my favorite question to break loose: “Says who?” It’s you who set this manic pace. Slow down. Take a deep breath. Be the happy person who loves his life naturally.

Some people have the habit of focusing on gloom. It that “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all” syndrome. I’d like to encourage you to see all trouble as a challenge and pass it off as a joke. It’s an opportunity for you to bring out your wonderful capabilities. If you weren’t challenged, you’d never know how capable you are.

The Word “Hate” Makes Me Twinge. I’d like to ask you to observe yourself and see if you say “I hate this” or “I hate that” throughout your day. Hatred is the opposite of love, and to have a habit of hatred – well, I can’t find the words for how awful this is. Hatred will make you very, very ill. Love is the answer. You have a choice.

Temporary Pleasures. Let’s say you are on a diet. You really want that cookie. You eat it. That was a temporary pleasure. If you had stuck with your diet, you’d eventually enjoy a permanent pleasure – your new body. Temporary pleasures usually become habitual and when they do, they block the way of achieving a permanent goal or ambition. You can observe yourself and discover if you’re going for temporary or permanent pleasures. For a while, that cookie seems all important. Is it really? Or are you willing to hold out for something better – something more permanent?
Instant Presto-Change-O. We all love instant gratification. Much of the marketing used today preys on this habit. But if you want to make a real difference in life, you will have to get a grip on the idea that change requires a great deal of processing and it doesn’t happen overnight, regardless of what you think you see in the movies.

Mother Theresa did not set out to feed the entire poor population of Calcutta. She feed one person, then the next one, and the one after that. Her work was wonderful but it wasn’t instantaneous. She had a habit of this day’s work, followed by this day’s work. You get the idea. Begin your achievements with what’s nearest you. It will ripple out from there.

Negative People. You have a good heart. You’re generous. You love to help people. But sometimes, these people can drain the very life out of you, so you have to change this habit to one of surrounding yourself with people who support you as much as you support them. This is not easy, based on your good heart. I think in the long run, though, if you hold fast to your determination to set them aside, they will figure things out for themselves. This must be a facet of tough love, but love it is.

I hope that you found little clean-up areas in yourself as you read and that you can see ways to Be the Change more in your life.