15 Habits you should quit right now to unleash your best productive self
for your good
Carrying a sack of productivity and healthier lifestyle is a necessity on your journey towards success and better self. It’s not at all easy to acquire the bunch of new habits or eliminate the old ones from our routines in order to be productive.
The question is not, what new habits need to be added; rather what habits one must quit.
“Acceptance of one's life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes, with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering, of psychological complexes and injustices.” Paul Tournier (physician and author)
Accepting where you are wrong is the first step towards unleashing your best productive self.
1. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.” –Bruce Lee
Stop ‘thinking to do it’ and bring that thinking into action now. If you will not do it, someone else will act upon it before you. Thinking alone cannot lead you anywhere. Once you have decided on a certain idea or thought, restrain from asking for or searching for any further suggestions or advice and do what’s in your mind.
2. “Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed.” –Sydney Smith
Focus on building and working on long-term goals. Those building blocks of that bridge will be your short-term goals, which will make you embody, certain habits, which need to be done every day to reach your destination.
3. “Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.” Emile Coue
You don’t need to perfect everything in your life in a single day. Start with one thing at a time. Improvise a little bit every day. No such thing exists as an overnight success. It’s the accumulation of continued effort towards improvement, which leads you to the peak of success.
4. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” –Pele.
You need to give up on certain enjoyments and demands which are not serving you on your journey. To gain something, one needs to sacrifice something, that’s how the world works. The greater the sacrifice the greater the gratification and victory, which might not be visible in a small run, but will be worth it once you achieve your goals.
5. “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”--Peter Drucker
The company you hang out with influence you in the ways, you might not even be able to decipher. Think for a second, is there someone who possess negative vibes, with whom you hang out usually? If there is any such person, just try to avoid spending too much time with them. Even, it is often advised that just don’t spend your time with such people at all! Remember, the more you spend time with productive, successful and positive people, the better you will become.
6. “Less time spent explaining things means more time for coming up with creative solutions.” --Jesse James Garrett
Stop explaining yourself to everyone. People have the habit to judge you and each person have his or her own perspectives on whatever you say or do. You can never keep everyone happy. You cannot control them or what they think.
7. “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” --Marilyn Monroe.
Don’t try to be a perfectionist, because you can never become one. If you will keep waiting for a perfect time, perfect place and perfect ways, you will never be able to make it done and in the process, you will keep on loosing certain opportunities. Take the action first and then keep on finding out ways afterward to improvise it.
8. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” --Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Don’t run away from the things you fear. Face your fears. If you will not face them now, you will keep on running away from them, which will, at last, become your biggest weakness. That weakness will be enough to strike you down in your life anytime, by your enemies. We cannot delete our fears but we can delete our habit of running away from them.
9. “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”--Mahatma Gandhi
Give up the daily consumption of unhealthy food and engage in some physical exercise. Take care of your health first, which means healthy not only physically but mentally and spiritually as well. Nothing can be accomplished without a healthy body, first.
10. “It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”--Bruce Lee
Give up on listening to every piece of advice. Take what seems right to you and delete the rest. Analyse by yourself, what seems right and what not. Stop believing and doing everything and anything the people around you explain or say.
11. “This is how many people become artists, musicians, writers, computer programmers, record-holding athletes, scientists... by spending time alone practicing what they love.” --Meg Cabot
Get lost for some time. Don’t use any social media site for some time. Focus on your life and yourself. Utilise this time to breathe in and feel nature and to introspection. It’s necessary to keep yourself mentally healthy and what next steps you have to take for your goals.
12. "To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.” Buddha
Keep your mind engaged. Don’t sit idle, doing anything and thinking on the matter which doesn’t really matters! If you cannot find anything to do and feeling trapped, go out and observe people at work, try to understand what they are doing, how they are doing it? If possible, talk to them, gain knowledge from them. Keep learning and expanding your mind.
13. “Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.” --Robert Foster Bennett.
Don’t blame anyone for your failures or your life. Learn to take charge of your life. You are responsible for whatever happened to it. This way, you will stop making excuses for not letting something happened.
14. “As you think, so you are.”—Buddha. Don’t bring in doubts. Set your mind towards bigger goals and greater perspectives. Think positive. Start your day by focusing on what you have and what you want to achieve and then work tenaciously towards it.
15. “Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” --Thomas Dekker.
Don’t compromise on your sleep. A good amount of sleep is extremely necessary, for your brain to take some rest and get refreshed. Also, try taking short naps in between your task. It boosts up your focus and resets your brain.
Self-productivity is a task in itself, which needs to be maintained in the long-term to achieve your goals and to become a better version of yourself, each day. Start chiseling out your productive self by recognizing and quitting the unproductive habits.
15 Habits you should quit right now to unleash your best productive self
Narrate by – Ankit Maharishi