1. Being defensive and finding excuses. There’s a line between knowing your worth, and being unable to grow because you can’t hear feedback.
2. Tolerating “friends” and family that drain your energy, lie, and refuse to reciprocate.
3. Not getting enough sleep. Seriously, adults need 7-9 hours of sleep to function properly, but a huge number of people think they can get away with 6 or less. You really can’t (unless you’re one of the ~3% of the population with the gene for it). Chronic sleep deprivation can cause serious issues with your focus, mood, etc. and you might not even notice it if you’ve just gotten used to not getting enough sleep.
4. Saying yes too much. Just because you want people to know that you’re a decent human being doesn’t mean you have to put yourself out constantly to prove it. The people who matter most will know without you doing favors for them.
5. Automatically thinking negatively about things.
6. Complaining. Nothing wrong with some ranting but when all you do is complain about everything it’s really draining to everyone around you.
7. Overthinking. It starts always very very small, you sit next to someone who has a terrible breath and the following day you brush your teeth twice and still think ‘Does my breath small bad?’. But the problem is, it won’t go away. And that bad habit will continue until it’s so bad you’re constantly thinking if you’re listening good enough, ‘was my joke bad?’, ‘do these people actually like me’, ‘did I come over as a jerk?’.
8. Mindless, regular purchases. Regular Starbucks, or smoking, or eating out gets very expensive. Several hundreds of dollars a month really adds up in a year and a lifetime.
9. Breaking promises. No matter how small they are. They are a commitment you gave your word for and when broken lose a lot of trust between yourself and the other party.
10. Not practicing self-care. You’re not a robot and if you push yourself too hard and don’t take enough time off you’ll end up unhappy.
11. Skipping classes in uni/college. That shit escalates at rocket speed.
12. Isolation.
Being alone is like a drug, a very long me-day where everyday you feel total freedom, until you realize it has become too hard to get out of the habit.
Sure, you could make the effort to reconnect with others or go out and make new friends, but people aren’t THAT interesting and you feel too lazy… better stay in bed today.13. Forgetting to brush and floss your teeth. Easy to forget but very important to do on a regular basis.
14. Becoming a workaholic — your life just passes you by as you work away at some meaningless job.
15. Thinking you’re a nice person by constantly letting people cross your personal boundaries. It is not selfish to say no. The right people will respect your boundaries. It is your job to honor yourself by setting them, and choosing those in your life who respect them. Not assuming everyone will just know how to respect you.
16. Finishing everything on your plate. Don’t let someone else decide what is the right portion for you.
17. Not choosing to parent yourself. No one else is going to do it once you’ve moved out on your own. You need to develop that habit of making yourself do things you don’t want to do.
18. Arguing to win, rather than engaging problems from a mutually truth-seeking position.
Both in relationships and, just politically or socially dealing with the world, we tend to be taught to uphold beliefs or positions in ways that are not scientific or productive for living with other people. Thus we tie our esteem to our positions rather than to respect that we are developing as individuals and communities.19. Dating abusive people and giving them complete control.
20. Self deprecating humor. Don’t put yourself down 24/7. You start believing you’re own “jokes” and others think it’s okay to insult you if it’s said in a “joking” way. Just don’t do it. Honor yourself. You’re a good person.
21. White lies. No matter how small or innocent, before you know it you get tangled up in a web of them.
22. Fast food. Holy fucking shit fast food.
It’s cheap, it’s everywhere, it’s open to YOUR schedule, and you can have it NOW! No waiting, no reservation, no waiter, just you and the kind of money you wouldn’t miss in buying an extra coffee just once and this pile of meat, cheese, and bread, with all the soda you see, can be yours. Right now!
Don’t feel like cooking? Grocery store prices got you feeling queasy in your wallet? Come on by the McBurger’s! We’re always open, always delicious, and we’re C H E A P!!!
Seriously, don’t eat fast food. So much junk nutrition, deceptively high calorie counts, and it adds up fast.
23. Tugging at eyelashes.
24. Inactivity. A sedentary lifestyle contributes to obesity, increases risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, the list goes on.
25. Grabbing your phone every chance you get.
26. Uberring everywhere.
27. Having bad posture.
28. Comparing yourself to others.
29. Not cleaning up after yourself. This allows for shit to pile up and then it’s just overwhelming.
30. “Debating” things on Twitter. It makes you less informed, more angry, more depressed, more closed minded. If you stop you instantly feel better. It gets you addicted to the righteous rush of outrage, and normalizes the idea of judging entire groups of people by a single video of a single person on their worst day. If you stop you instantly feel better.
Twitter is fucking poison.31. When you are in a conversation, or someone is telling you a problem they are suffering, people should stop giving feedback like “If I were you” “I wouldn’t do it like that” “that never happened to me” “that happened to me”, I mean, stop redirecting everything to oneself. We don’t do that for bad reasons but it doesn’t help the other one if we are constantly taking the attention from then, that’s just egocentric.
32. Not saving money. People should work on their savings. Cut down on unnecessary spending.
33. Just sitting in bed for an hour after you wake up.
34. Putting others before yourself too much.
35. Anger, I’ve seen so many people addicted to their anger ruin their lives at a rate thats down right shocking. Even when comparing it to things which are traditionally seen as much more dangerous at a glance like some drugs and alcohol.
Anger literally eats people alive, and spits them out… changed.36. “Oh, there’s still plenty of time…” Running everything down to the last second and then blowing a fuse when they miss the bus or can’t find a place to park.
37. Pulling at split ends. Once you see one, the search is never over…
38. Online shopping, for clothes and stuff. It’s so addictive.
39. Not getting yourself up and going in the mornings. It makes it very easy to lose your weekend/time of.
40. Negative thinking.
It’s easy to find evidence for how fucked the world is but it’s a vicious circle.
Look for the helpers and start to foster a more positive outlook.41. Worrying what other people think of you too much.
42. Lottery. As the saying goes… it’s just a tax on people who are bad at math.
Sure, play once and a while when it is a big jackpot, but don’t use special numbers.. (family birthdays, favorite numbers, etc..) you might start to get superstitious and think you have to play them every week.
43. Staying up late. Once you start, it’s all downhill after that.
44. Nail biting.
It’s unsanitary, painful, and gross.
45. Cheating/Adultery. All you need to do is try it once and get away with it. Then it’s entirely unlikely you’ll ever find a reason to stop.
46. Eating when you’re not hungry.
47. Saying yes to people even when you want to say no.
48. Lying… It’s so easy to start fabricating small lies here and there.
49. Office gossip and shit talking.
50. Screen time and scrolling. There are some apps that can put timers on your scrolling apps or you rely on self discipline. One of the senior Facebook developers said that he developed scrolling to deliberately keep users on the site/app longer, and that he regrets it because it has caused problems. Some people are addicted to screens and scrolling and don’t realize. People are never bored any more.
Thought Catalog
