“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Destructive habits are aptly named because they can literally destroy your life. If you believe in such things, they divert you from whatever true destiny you came into this world with.
Some are obvious. Some have been talked about at length. Yet we all conveniently forget about their harmful influence on our lives.
Others, you may be doing every day without realizing they’re even bad at all (see my example about “productive procrastination in #3).
Regardless, killing the following 3 habits and replacing them with something more productive and life-affirming can help you change your life for the better in the coming months:
Destructive habit # 1: Getting sucked into other people’s drama.
Some people thrive on this needless and destructive habit. When you think about the time spent listening, the hassle of trying to help them find solutions they never listen to, and the numerous negative emotions drama can allow to creep into your consciousness, there’s just no sense. Winners don’t sit around whining about their problems — they eradicate them and move on to more positive pursuits. Listening to, or spreading drama doesn’t help anyone.
Certainly not you…
Jen’s boyfriend may or may not be cheating on her and she needs someone to talk to. Brian’s unhappy because his coworkers are giving him strange looks and he thinks they might be spreading rumors about how he hides in the janitor’s closet texting girls on Tinder. Jane has a tummy ache and wants to drone on about it for hours, contemplating whether she has cancer instead of just going to the doctor to have it checked out.
What to do instead:
- Find actual grownups to spend your time with.
- Spend more time by yourself pursuing things that actually help your bottom line.
- Stop watching reality television, particularly anything with a “K” anywhere in the title!
Destructive habit # 2: Watching television.
Hey, we all do it, but that big or little rectangular box is sucking the soul from your body and killing your potential. Just imagine how much time you’d have to pursue your passions if we had the ability to turn the clock back to the 50’s where people had to travel down to the theater and spend hard earned money to catch a 90-minute movie? The millions who spend more than an hour per day in front of the tube would have to actually participate in their lives rather than living someone else’s vicariously through the tube (this includes computer monitors if you’re watching/streaming entertainment with no educational substance to it!)
Who cares which insanely beautiful girl the Bachelor ends up choosing at the end of all the silly Hollywood-contrived drama that sucks away 20-plus hours of your life before you find out?
And seriously, what’s up with the Kardashians and all the love they get? You’ve all heard Kim K actually married someone just to drum up all that drama for you, then had to spend millions she gets from the show and the various products she pushes just to divorce him, right?
Will you care about what’s happening on Grey’s Anatomy or CSI when you’re on your death bed? Probably (hopefully) not!
What to do instead:
- Read books — even fiction is good for your brain, inspires actual creative thoughts, and might extend your life. Just don’t use it as a procrastination crutch!
- Listen to podcasts about the things that interest you. Here’s 5 that’ll inspire your entrepreneurial dreams.
- Go for an outing to the movies when you need some tube time. It’s more social, higher quality entertainment, and the sound system rocks!
Destructive habit # 3: Procrastinating.
This includes running around like a chicken with its head cut off and/or having no clear path in front of you. Using other people’s drama, television, or even “productive” activities like reading business books and listening to inspiring or educational blogs and vlogs can be procrastination if done for the wrong reasons. Fail to plan, plan to fail and all that noise.
What I’m saying is that if you have something you want to do, why avoid it by filling your time with second-rate stuff that will leave you eternally unfulfilled?
I know lots of people who want to start their own business, so they get up and read Think and Grow Rich for 2-plus hours every morning, thinking they’re pursuing their dreams. Then spend the rest of the day patting themselves on the back — essentially for “productive procrastination.” Just how productive, who knows? Depends if you ever end up using that education…
Have they started their business yet? No.
Will they get there some day? Maybe. If they get their head out of their keister!
What to do instead:
- Make a plan/daily routine that’s conducive to your goals and stick to it and never let up. See Habit Formation: The 21-Day Myth.
- Learn to recognize when you’re taking the easy “hard” road (ie., procrastinating) and study up on Tony Robbin’s practical tools to interrupt those destructive patterns and replace them with action, and achieve “peak state.”
- Just stop procrastinating. Recognize that it’s likely more fear than laziness that’s driving this destructive habit. As Jim Carrey would say “Jump through the fire!”
What destructive habit listed above are you most guilty of?
What do you plan to do about it starting right now?
Main Image Credit: Fitz Gerard Villafuerte/Flickr