7 Bad Habits You Need to Stop — Immediately.

Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have bad habits.

Some we simply fail to recognize while others we choose to openly ignore.

Regardless, it is vital to our personal development not only to highlight these habits, but to actively seek change.

Here are 7 bad habits that should be stopped immediately:

1. Going to bed late.

This was a bad habit of mine for awhile during my first few semesters at college.

After classes, work, homework, practice or whatever other obligation I had, I chose to stay up and watch T.V. or shoot the shit with my roommates instead of go to bed.

Hanging out with friends obviously is not a bad thing — it’s healthy to socialize. But if you’re exhausted (like I was) and choose to watch season 3 of “The Office” for the 7 billionth time instead of sleep, you need to start making better choices.

Aim for 8 hours. If you’re extremely busy, try to get between 6 or 7 hours at least.And don’t be afraid to go to bed early.

It’s crazy how many people find themselves completely wiped out from a long day at work by 8 o’clock yet choose to stay up for another 4 hours to watch Netflix.

Everyone could use a bit more sleep.

2. Hitting snooze.

Everyone could use a bit more sleep.

Sound familiar?

This is where going to bed early serves its purpose.

A really, really bad habit too many people have is hitting the snooze button in the morning.

I get it — you’re tired.

Yes — five more minutes sounds splendid.

No — it doesn’t actually benefit you.

If your first decision of the day was a lazy one, how do you think the rest of your day is going to pan out?

First of all, you wouldn’t be so tired if you freaking went to bed earlier (see above).

But there is a much deeper, underlying problem that comes with hitting the snooze button in the morning.

It’s called rationalizing (see below).

3. Rationalizing.

Let me be clear: I’m not talking about rational thinking in general.

Of course you should seriously consider the consequences of, say, jumping out of a boat if you don’t know how to swim.

When I say rationalizing, I’m talking about hitting snooze in the morning to get that extra five minutes.

Think about it like this:

Your alarm goes off in the morning.

You decide to hit snooze.

You haven’t even gotten out of bed yet and you’ve already broken your first promise of the day. You chose to keep on sleeping instead of getting up when you said you would.

Same goes for eating dessert if you’re dieting because you’ve “done a great job so far and deserve it” or going out to the bars when you have work to do because “Hey, I need to have fun too”.

We are all subject to this way of thinking. It’s a problem most of us have but very few of us notice.

Start to pay attention to when and why you rationalize — then, stop doing it.

4. Eating junk.

It’s 2018.

If you haven’t done any research on how eating shitty food impacts your mood, hormones, emotions, digestive system, nervous system, thinking ability — please, start now.

Eating junk food is just as dangerous to your brain as it is to your body. Not to mention, junk food is highly addictive.

We really need to start taking nutrition seriously.

5. Hanging out with bad influences.

You probably heard this one from your parents a million times — I know I did.

I now see their point.

Bad influences aren’t necessarily people who do ‘bad things’.

Bad influences are people with different priorities than your own.

For example, if you haven’t finished studying, yet your friends can’t understand why you won’t come to the bar with them on a Thursday night, they are bad influences.

You need to start evaluating who you surround yourself with.

“Do they help or hinder my progress?”

Start asking yourself that question.

6. Over-stressing

I cannot stress this enough.

(Sorry — I couldn’t help myself).

In all seriousness, 90% of the things we stress about are out of our control anyway. We tend to overthink the things that have a set outcome, or stress about ‘what ifs’ that won’t happen. We get wrapped up in unreasonable scenarios based on irrational fears and end up making rash decisions.

Stress is detrimental to the body. It literally takes years off of your life. Not to mention, over-stressing can cause endless psychological problems.

I dealt with over-stressing — as a result of over-thinking — for a long time.

Some questions to ask yourself to avoid over-stressing are:

• Is this in my control?
• Will the outcome change who I am?
• What am I actually worried about?

Some other tips to avoid over-stressing include meditation, exercise, and eating right.

Clear your mind and de-stress as often as possible to be the best version of yourself.

7. Waiting for change

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” — Maya Angelou

Everything you do or do not do with your life comes down to the choices you make.

Whether you like to admit it or not, we all have a bad habit of blaming others for our misfortunes or blaming our circumstances for our shortcomings.

If you want to see change, implement change.

It’s as simple as that.

Thanks for reading!

Like this answer? Check out The Minutes Publication by Nicolas Cole — we tackle topics like productivity, business news, leadership among others.