5 Habits That Negatively Impact Your Life
Similar to a house, life also needs to be built and maintained. But sometimes, people try to escape the realities and continue sabotaging what’s good in their lives without even realising it.
If you feel unsatisfied with your life, you might be more prone to developing bad habits and adopting destructive behaviours that further deprive you of happiness. It’s easy to get tangled in unhealthy habits such as negative self-talk, judgment, blame games, and comparison. It can be challenging, at times, to realise that your happiness has been affected since you’ve done such a great job of burying these negative feelings under your habits.
However, getting rid of such self-destructive behaviours is the only way to find your way to happiness. The following are some of the behaviours that are negatively impacting your life and you must quash right now:
- Indulging in self-destructive habits
Self-destructive behaviours are essentially actions that cause harm to an individual – either physically, emotionally, or mentally. Although these behaviours might seem intentional and planned, more often than not, they are impulsive and unintentional. For instance, we’re prone to take our dental health for granted, thinking that brushing is more than enough.
Do you also numb yourself from troubles by abusing drugs, drinking excessive alcohol, or relying on other harmful substances? Although these substances might help you reach a state of euphoria, over the long haul, this deprives you of happiness. It’s specifically true if all you’re doing is numbing out rather than trying to fix your problems.
If you find yourself constantly grappling with symptoms of addiction, it’s probably time to seek professional help. Since every addiction problem has a different treatment, professionals can devise a plan that best suits your needs.
- Dwelling too much on the past
Life is all about living in the present moments, yet many people choose to cling to the past.
Thinking about the memories and traumas and continually going over painful experiences from the past is the definite way to ruin happiness and fill yourself with bitter emotions. The weight of disappointments, losses, failures, and regrets can impede you from moving forward in life.
There’s no denying the fact that the past shapes a person in several ways. However, holding onto it and tormenting yourself over mistakes can severely harm your mental health. After all, you cannot reverse what you’ve already done or travel back in time and make amendments to make up for your mistakes.
All you can do is acknowledge your past, learn from your mistakes, and vow never to repeat them. Develop an optimistic mindset and devise meaningful goals to keep yourself busy. Every day offers heaps of opportunities to make your life count for something. Capitalize on these opportunities, strive to improve yourself, and live your best life.
- Comparing yourself to others constantly
Do you continuously find yourself comparing your life with others? If that is the case, you inadvertently keep yourself from being authentically happy. That’s because comparison is undeniably the theft of happiness and joy.
The impulse to compare yourself to others can indeed be pretty overwhelming. It’s easy to think that someone else has the ideal life because they seem to have the best job, successful relationships, make more money, or are more conventionally pretty. All the more so with social media being so ingrained in our everyday lives.
Nevertheless, the truth is that comparisons can never be fair. Every human being has flaws. So try to appreciate little things in life, even if they aren’t perfect. And concentrate on developing and fostering your strengths and skills instead of striving to be someone else.
- Letting procrastination rule your life
Admittedly, every one of us, now and then, is habitual of holding off the tasks for the eleventh hour. Or we either come up with excuses for why we haven’t completed the chores we’ve been meaning to do. Unfortunately, this habit can spell negative repercussions and cause real damage to life goals and objectives.
Procrastination is primarily self-sabotage that subverts the level of enthusiasm and happiness in life. While neglecting the tasks on hand or leaving them unfinished may seem like an escape route, this practice, unfortunately, lands you in a bigger mess in the end.
Nonetheless, the good news: there are ways to circumvent the snowball effects of procrastination. One best approach is to follow the Pomodoro technique to boost productivity levels. This method allows you to focus on work while enjoying little intervals of breaks in between.
Prioritizing tasks and completing them timely will give you more freedom in how you wish to spend your entire day.
- Constantly playing blame games
Blaming is nothing more than a person’s attempt to numb their agony. Whenever we experience pain, we instinctively want to blame someone or something. As a result, most people, if not all, naturally seek out something or someone else to hold accountable for their pain or suffering.
Perhaps you experienced abuse as a child, grew up in poverty, or feel that your life lacked growth opportunities. Maybe you feel trapped in an unhappy marriage or can only support your family with minimum pay employment.
However, making people or situations the root of your problems is a surefire way to rob yourself of happiness and success in life. There’s no way you can stop bad things from happening to you. But you do have the power to write your own life story.
Learn to accept complete responsibility for your decisions and behaviours, get past the core of your issues, and come up with solutions.
Final Words
More often than not, negative habits and behaviours are deeply rooted in our lives, and it may seem almost impossible to change them. Nonetheless, you can unlearn them with time, practice, and persistence.
To improve your self-esteem and utilize this renewed sense of self, steer towards the goals and people that bring happiness in life. Get clear on your ambitions and use that to diligently lead yourself toward a future that aligns well with your needs.
Lastly, spend some time reflecting on things you currently have and practice gratitude. Try to appreciate each blessing and stop stressing over things that won’t probably matter at the end of the day.
