Career success means something different to every person: like beauty, it exists in the eye of the beholder.  It is your responsibility to determine what success in your career means for you, and how you go about breeding success in your life.

Despite this, there are definitely hindrances to your career success. These drawbacks are ubiquitous in their ability to deter your success. But don’t fret because if you seek success in your career, and you fear your actions are blocking your desire for success, you have the power and control to overcome the following obstacles.

• What Are Your Top 5 Negative Habits That You Must Change to Something Better?
• What Are The Top 10 Bad Work Habits?
• What Can Hinder You From Achieving Your Goals?
• Top 5 Possible Barriers in Achieving Your Personal Goals
• What Are Some Bad Work Habits?
• What Can Stop Success?
• What Are 10 Good Habits?
• What is Considered a Toxic Employee?
• How Can I Get Rid of my Bad Habit in 21 Days?
• What Are Examples of Success?
• What Are The 5 Steps to Success?

What Are Your Top 5 Negative Habits That You Must Change to Something Better?

Productivity is very important in today’s fast-moving world. Most people try to add to their routine to get more done, but that approach takes a while before it yields good, measurable results.  

Most of the time, all you need to triple your productivity is to stop doing a few things. Almost immediately, you’ll see and feel a huge difference. Cutting out tasks that drag you down leaves space for the things that really matter. It might seem counterintuitive, but it makes sense to pare down first — and then begin integrating new systems into your life.

Read Also: Starting a Career in Corporate Leadership

If you’re looking for a place to start, consider how you’re spending your time and concentrate on eliminating these five bad habits.

1. Scheduling every second of your day (with no free time).

This may come as a surprise, but if you want to start improving your productivity, you need to stop scheduling every second of your day. People enjoy the process of setting their calendar and the fleeting feeling of accomplishment it brings. But if you schedule too much, you’ll end up hating your work days.

Not only that, but when an emergency pops up or you don’t have the energy to finish the remaining work, you’ll lose track of your day. It will be a mess, and you won’t achieve nearly as much as you’d set out to complete. 

The solution? Opt for a simpler method, such as picking six important tasks you want to finish before you go to sleep. When you wake up, create a simple outline for the things you want to accomplish, but don’t stick to too rigidly to the schedule.

Listen to what your body is telling you. Keep your sights on the most important tasks — and don’t forget to eat breakfast in the morning.

2. Trying to succeed at multiple things at once.

This is where most people tend to lose focus. We all want to be successful in many aspects of life: build businesses for multiple markets, be an athlete, travel the world and so on.

If you follow too many opportunities at the same time, you’re setting yourself up to fall short in more ways than one. Or, if you do achieve success, the law of distribution means you’ll have little celebrations that don’t bring as much satisfaction as one or two big wins.

It’s better to identify one thing that will help you achieve other goals and focus all your energy on that catalyst for change. When you succeed, reduce the time you devote to that pursuit and redirect those hours or even minutes to other avenues.

The best part? You can leverage your initial success to help you reach other milestones. For example, if you build that business you’ve been thinking about and turn a consistent profit, you can use that success and capital to fuel other endeavors — making them successful twice as quickly as your first company. Or use your net proceeds to travel the world without worrying about cash flow or needing to spend time taking care of your business.

3. Aiming for perfection.

You know the feeling that nags you when you try to launch a new project? The twinge when you go live with a new website and then find a few small details that aren’t quite perfect?

If you’re like me, you’re willing to spend hours or even days chasing the idea of perfection. But I’ve noticed a comical snowball effect, and it happens every time: When I start fixing one thing, I find a bunch of other things that need to be perfect, too. The loop keeps going long after I’ve run out of energy to do my best work. And that can lead to indefinite delays.

The bittersweet truth is no one will notice your imperfections the way you do. Even if a few people do pick up on a detail here and there, your losses won’t be as severe as they will if you don’t try at all. Even if you fail, you’ll learn something. 

Instead, aim to get your project to 90 percent — and then launch. You can iterate and make tweaks as you go. 

4. Skipping breaks to get more done.

When you work more, you get more done, right? (Trick question. It’s 100 percent wrong.) 

As Cal Newport demonstrates in his book “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World,” the things you get done are equal to the time spent, minus the intensity of the work.

So if you spend 10 hours doing things at an intensity of 2, you’ll achieve the same result as if you spend 2 hours doing things at an intensity of 10. It’s an amazing concept. In one-quarter of the time, you achieved the same thing. The key to accomplishing more is increasing your intensity. 

To get in the habit, you can follow the Pomodoro technique. Work uninterruptedly on a single task for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. After four cycles, you can take a longer break. This is one of the three steps that helped me build my business while studying dentistry.

5. Not rewarding yourself.

How does rewarding yourself increase productivity? It inspires you to sustain that level of intensity. And if you want to get more done, you need to build in more rewards.

When you’ve accomplished two hours of high-intensity work, reward yourself with something simple — like a chocolate. You can even schedule free time in your calendar to enjoy these rewards. A longer burst of intense work might earn you a new movie, for example.

It might sounds unbelievable, but trust me when I say it’s very important to take time for these moments. If you don’t, you’ll get burned out quickly. Scheduling rewards in advance not only prevent you from reaching that critical point but also helps you focus intently on the task at hand. You know you’ve allotted yourself time to do the work, and you know you’ll soon be enjoying a hard-won reward.

What Are The Top 10 Bad Work Habits?

If you ever wonder why you have not yet reached your long-awaited career goals, it is time to examine your professional self and the work-life you are leading. Whether you know it or not, sometimes our bad work habits are the biggest obstacle in our path to success in our career.

If not careful with our errors and mistakes, these can cost us our dignity, professional growth, and confidence. You would not want to sabotage your career advancement because of some silly bad habits at the workplace. If you find yourself having any of these bad work habits, make a commitment to break them as soon as possible so that you can move up in your career path.

1. Gossiping and bad-mouthing

No one likes gossip-mongers in a professional environment. Spreading rumours or backbiting your colleagues will cause you a bad reputation only. You might not be a big fan of people you are working with, especially your boss and manager, but do not spell it out loud in office and with your team mates. Instead, try to work it out directly with the concern person. Try to put yourself in their place and think what would you do in their situation. If a co-worker approaches you to gossip, nip it in the bud.

2. Being negative

Negativity is another bad thing that is not at all welcomed at workplaces. If you are a person who complains excessively and whine around for insignificant things, then you are annoying a bunch of your colleagues, not to mention, your boss too. It creates an unpleasant and negative environment and everyone working in that catches a bad mood. This not only hurts the productivity but also makes it hard to work.

3. Lying about productivity

We are humans and can’t perform at our optimal level every day. Sometimes, due to stress, sickness, or other distraction, we may not be 100% productive. However, lying about the quantity or quality of work and your performance can lead you in a difficult position when your superiors figure out that you are lying. If you are lacking your productivity constantly, it is high time to explore the core reason behind it and take an action.

4. Avoiding feedback

One of the best ways to improving your skills and growing in your career is getting constructive criticism and working on that feedback. Avoiding the feedback from your boss, your co-workers, or someone in a position to do that can stall your career for indefinite time. Feedback is the breakfast of champions and if you ignore the feedback, there is no way you will become a champion.

5. Neglecting Email etiquette

Emails have become an essential part of our professional life. People on higher positions are required to spend a lot of their time on emails everyday for ensuring an smooth execution in the organisation. If you seek to grow and get a higher position, you can’t just ignore the email etiquette. If you are not careful about how you communicate with people at workplace, it will put a ding in your reputation at work. So, double check your digital communications before sending them.

6. Not taking responsibility

Another big hit on your career can be your tendency of not taking responsibility. If you do not show interest and enthusiasm towards anew project or task, it shows you disinterest in the job. So, take on new job responsibilities – ones that will improve your visibility within your company.

Also, you need to take responsibility of your actions. Whether right or wrong, if you have done something, say it loud that it is yours. This makes you a reliable team player and a trustworthy employee.

7. Lying about your skills

If you are used to of fabricating your credentials and pretending to be a know-it-all person, you are in trouble. There are adequate chances that everyone will find out the truth eventually and you will land in an embarrassing situation. Being truthful about your skills, on the other hand, gives you opportunities to learn new skills when a new task is assigned to you. Also, the fear of failure will not haunt you as your boss knows you are starting afresh.

8. Not being a team player

It is great that you are focused on your work but if you are not building professional relationships inside and outside of your team, you will end up sitting in your cubicle alone, all day long. When your team is assigned a task, it is everyone’s duty to work on finishing that up.

If you are not helping your team members or you are making excuses in order to not receiving any responsibility, you can not expect help from your team when you need it. Also, it will put your future promotion in jeopardy as no one will ever recommend an unhelpful person for a higher position.

9. Not asking for help

No one knows everything and you are no different. IF you do not ask questions while in a meeting or working on a project, this shows your lack of interest in the task at hand. If you don’t ask for help, your co-workers and manager won’t know when to extend support. Asking questions and crying out loud when you need help makes you more enthusiastic and curious in front of the leadership.

10. Burning Bridges

There are chances that you and your boss or co-worker are not agreeing on something related to a project or a task at hand. This does not mean you have to forget your professional etiquette and start fighting with them. Do not burn the bridge between you and your colleagues. If you are planning to leave this job, exit in a professional manner. Do not throw mud on your colleagues and manager but maintain dignity.

What Can Hinder You From Achieving Your Goals?

1. Perfectionism

So many people have deep desires within themselves and truly want to achieve certain things in life. But they are greedy and unappreciative even before they receive them, and want much more than they deserve.

Many, for instance, want not just to be offered a good job with a high salary and work hard to make money and increase the quality of their life, but they want to be rich, and they want it now.

That’s a wrong approach.

Because, first you need to be grateful for what you already have (and no matter how little that is, believe me, others have much less and still find the will to thank for it).

Only then will you feel some abundance and will realize that you have the power to turn it into something more. And you’ll feel the need to work for that, to give something in return and to then enjoy the fruits of your labor.

That’s how you can eliminate perfectionism from your life and still achieve what you want.

2. Failure

We have a wrong perception of what failure is these days.

Most people fear it, they don’t even try because of the chance of not succeeding. And that’s why they never see their dreams come true.

The truth is, failure is a precious gift. It’s an inevitable step on your way to success, and a step you need to take more than once.

It’s the proof that you’re trying, you’re doing something to get what you want, and you’re not giving up.

It’s followed by lessons and experience, and it makes you stronger, with more willpower, more focused. It shows you what exactly not to do next time, because it didn’t work out this time.
And if you keep trying, eventually you’ll get there.

There’s no better example than Thomas Edison – his whole life is a proof of the power of failure and how you can work with it for optimum success.

3. Focusing on the end result

I know you’re eager to reach your goals. There’s just something inside us that makes us impatient and whatever it is that we want, we want it right away.

But you also need to realize that things just don’t work that way. And the best you can do is enjoy the process and focus less on the end result.

4. Taking big steps

There’s a certain path you’ll need to walk before you get there. And its purpose is to make you strong enough to handle the success that’s waiting for you.

That path consists of many steps. Small ones – because the big ones make us worry, fear and not even try.

So divide your goals into small steps, then into even smaller, until you have a list of simple tasks to do each day. And make them so easy and quick that it will be impossible to say no.

5. Excuses

You may often hear yourself say some of the following:

I’m not ready;
It’s not the right time;
I’m not good enough;
I’m too old/young;
I don’t have enough money/time/experience;
Most people don’t succeed anyway, neither will I;
Maybe I’m not meant to do it;
It’s too hard;
It will take too long;
I may do it wrong;
People will laugh at me;
or else.

When that happens, stop and reflect on why you’re saying this.

Realize that your mind is tricky and prefers to stay in its comfort zone, doing the same old activities and tasks on autopilot, and not try anything new. That’s why it’s making up all these excuses, that can often sound quite convincing.

Your job is to eliminate them, to even exaggerate them and see how ridiculous they sound. Because if you choose the other option – if you believe them – you’ll never do anything different with your life and will never see the things you desire come true.

6. Procrastination

It’s another thing that stops us from taking action towards our goals. So it’s another thing we need to give up.

Keep in mind one thing: now is the best time to do what you want, any other time is later than now.

The present moment is where you create your future and the only time you can be productive and work on what you believe in.

The only cure for procrastination is to start doing something immediately, without thinking and giving your mind time to come up with excuses. Without doubting your abilities and fearing failure.
Just do a little something today that will help you move forward and get closer to your dreams.

7. Expectations

Stop expecting so much. It’s a destructive behavior that brings deep disappointment in your life.

You expect things to turn out in a certain way, you expect people to behave like you imagine them to, and whenever that doesn’t work out, you feel upset and lose any motivation to take action.

So ditch these fantasies you live in, eliminate the scenarios you play in your head of how things should be, and accept them as they are.

And meanwhile, keep doing what you know is right.

8. Distractions

There will be people who will doubt you, who will make you lose hope if you listen to them.
There will be many temptations on your way to success, too. Many pleasant, but time-wasting, activities. And you’ll often feel that life is unfair because others have so much time, can eat whatever they want, can buy stuff, or else, and you can’t.

But that’s not true.

It’s just that you’ve chosen to work on your goals and strive for a better life, while others prefer the easier way of living – indulging in activities that only bring temporary happiness.

9. Lack of consistency

That’s a big one.

Because whatever you do, if you don’t do it each day, you won’t see any progress.

Consistency is trait of the successful people, and it becomes a habit, as everything else.

But without it, you won’t get far. So break your steps into smaller ones, make time each day, and find the will to get up and do this one thing.

Top 5 Possible Barriers in Achieving Your Personal Goals

You have dreams for your life, yet it can sometimes feel impossible to make them real. You might know what to do and even how to do it, but taking action requires courage — the ability to withstand fear, humiliation, and discomfort.

We’re conditioned from childhood to avoid unpleasant feelings. Nothing stirs those feelings more than taking risks, which is necessary to go after your dreams. It’s no wonder change can feel so hard.

1. Comparing yourself to others

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of comparison. Look around and there’s probably someone already doing what you want to do. By comparing yourself to where they are and think how in the world you can compete with that will drag you down and reinforce a mentality of scarcity and fear, e.g., thinking you’re not good enough.

Do this instead:

• Recognize that no one has your exact style, experiences, and knowledge, which has led you to the path you’re on. There’s no one in this world who can be you better than you. Who can compete with that, really?

• Have a clear vision and understand why that’s important. Copying others and their journey will only cause you to feel inauthentic if it’s not meaningful to you.

• Focus on developing yourself. You’re a work in progress – not a static entity – and are evolving into the person you want to be.

• Compare yourself to a previous version of you, and celebrate all the progress you’ve made since then. We often look at how far we need to go that we lose sight of all we’ve done to get where we are today.

2. Perfectionism

Do you need to have it all figured out and know the outcome before you take action? That only led to over-thinking and high anxiety — it was painful.

Simply put, if perfectionism is your standard, then you have no standard — it’s a fantasy.

Do this instead:

• Realize that most decisions are reversible — you can change your mind later.

• Take small steps and adjust as necessary to get to the results you want. You’ll get clear by adopting a scientist’s mindset and running experiments to see what works and improve on that.

3. Care about what others think

The need for approval and avoidance of rejection has been ingrained in us since childhood. However, tying your worth to what other people think sets you up for disappointment by forgoing what matters most to you and doing things you believe will make them happy.

When you let go of the need to please, you’re free to be yourself. Otherwise, you’re only trying to get people to like you by pretending to be someone else. In reality, even if they approve of your actions, it’s not the real you that they like.

Discontent is the result of being disconnected from your authentic self.

Do this instead:

• Know that rejection is merely another person’s opinion. It informs you of the other person’s preference but doesn’t say anything about you as a person. There’s no need to make it personal.

• Ask yourself what’s more important to you than the approval of other people and make that your priority. Is it expressing yourself fully? Or maybe making meaningful contributions to the world? Decide what matters most to you, and act accordingly.

4. Fear of failure

Fear is a protection mechanism with the purpose of keeping you safe and out of danger. It scans the environment for what can go wrong and works hard to prevent that from happening. The problem with this approach is that fear identifies the most catastrophic outcome even when you’re going after your dreams and tries to stop you.

Do this instead:

• Don’t take fear at face value. Become curious and examine the facts objectively. There’s no denying that the worst case scenario is a possibility, but how likely is it as an outcome? If it does happen, can you recover? How long will you take to recover? What can you do to minimize the impact? If you succeed, then how does that affect your life?

• See failures as lessons that will only allow you to get better if you learn from your mistakes.

• Associate the discomfort you feel with growth instead of fear. If you’re moving in the direction of your dreams, this only means you’re growing into your potential.

5. Impatience

Our culture craves immediate gratification. However, a vision takes time. Focusing on all that needs to be done can feel crippling and cause you to give up even before you start. How are you ever going to make it to the end? How will you gain the confidence to succeed?

The answer: one step at a time.

Do this instead:

• Focus on the next small step that will move you closer to your vision. It’s the process that allows you to achieve your goals. The reward is in the journey, not the outcome.

• Recognize that confidence comes from competence, not the other way around. It’s only by doing the work that you’ll be inspired to be better and keep going.

Achieving your dreams takes courage. If you follow these simple strategies above, I believe you’ll grow into the person you want to be while finding joy on the path.

What Are Some Bad Work Habits?

It’s time to examine your work life and think about what changes you can make to become a more productive and pleasant colleague.

Don’t sabotage your career advancement. If any of these common bad habits sound familiar, make a commitment to break them for good.

Inappropriate use of computer time

For as long as computers have been used in offices, this has been an issue, says Chaim Shapiro, M.Ed, career expert and director of the office for student success at Touro College—but it’s gotten worse. “While the focus may have shifted from Solitaire to Farmville and now to social media, the problem remains,” he says. “Checking personal social media streams has become as expected as checking personal email, but there needs to be a clear line.” 

For one thing, many companies can and do track your online behavior, and if your social media posts are public, there’s a record of your social media activity during work hours.

Try this: View your social media time for what it really is—break time—and treat it accordingly.

Abusing privileges

Many workplaces are moving to results-only environments, often connected to remote work areas or work-from-home schedules, says Lars Sudmann, executive coach and leadership speaker. And with these changes, he explains, comes freedom: “Freedom to define your own schedule, to be present only when needed. However, it can be tempting for some people to abuse these freedoms.”

If you occasionally “work from home” and then go to lunch with friends, take advantage of an unlimited paid time off policy, or if you disappear to the break room one too many times, that’s pressing your luck.

“Once these behaviors are noticed by management and team members, it can be really detrimental for your future career outlook, as the trust that you’ll get things done without supervision is gone,” says Sudmann. 

Try this: Respect the freedoms you have. If you’re a remote employee, frequently check in to show you’re on the ball.

Not having an organized game plan

Most workers today have to be multitaskers, but if you’re having trouble prioritizing or completing tasks or missing deadlines, you clearly need a plan of action to get organized and back on the right track.

Even if you think you’re working efficiently by jumping from task to task without goal-setting, things can fall by the wayside. “I’m a big believer in having a plan for the week and the month,” Shapiro says. “There have to be goals and deliverables at the end of the week to make sure that you’re still on target and getting things done.”

Try this: Keep a spreadsheet of your weekly accomplishments. Not only will it prove valuable at your six-month review, but it can also keep you motivated to complete at least one major accomplishment every week.

Having a negative attitude

Some people go through life with a glass-half-empty, angry, or victim mindset, says Laura Handrick, career analyst with FitSmallBusiness.com, a New York City–based resource for small business leaders. “You may be angry at your spouse, frustrated that you didn’t get a bonus, or annoyed that your washing machine is on the fritz; keep that negativity and frustration out of the workplace,” she says. No one (co-workers and customers alike) enjoys being around someone who gives off negative energy.

“It’s not your co-workers’ fault that your ex is being a jerk,” says Handrick. “Don’t take it out on them, as it will affect your work performance and cause others to not want to work with you.”

Try this: The minute you walk into work, take a deep breath, and adopt a positive attitude of helpfulness and gratefulness.

Neglecting your appearance and overall health

It’s simple human nature: People will treat you differently based on the clothes you wear and the way that you present yourself, says Shapiro. “Coming to work disheveled or without paying attention to personal hygiene will negatively impact your reputation as well as your work,” he says.

Try this: Treat every day as a day that you might meet the company CEO or that top new client, and dress accordingly.

Saying inappropriate things

The off-color remarks, dirty jokes, and vulgarity that might have been commonplace and acceptable a decade ago just won’t fly in most workplaces today. And while every company culture will vary in what it defines as acceptable behavior, it’s more important than ever to think before you speak, says Shapiro.

“Some companies are more accepting of colorful language than others, but there is never an excuse for inappropriate or demeaning humor,” he adds.

Try this: Put your comment to the New York Times test. If you wouldn’t want it to be printed in the lead article, just don’t say it. 

Partying too hard

Employees often don’t realize that their recreational drug use or drinking carries over to the job. “Those who binge drink on the weekend often call in sick on Mondays,” says Handrick, “and those who smoke or imbibe on weeknights often wake up groggy or irritable the following day.”

If your co-workers see you in a bombed-out state, it will likely result in their perception of you as a poor performer, even if you manage to muddle through on the job, she adds. Not only that, it’s more likely for on-the-job accidents to occur when workers aren’t fully functional.

Try this: It’s critical to monitor your after-work activities, as it can take hours or days for alcohol or drugs to clear your system.

Not being coachable

You might have been a top performer throughout your career thus far and think you have nothing more to learn, but in a highly changing and rapidly evolving marketplace, that’s the wrong mindset, says Sudmann.

“A common mistake or bad habit is not being coachable,” he explains. “If you don’t listen to feedback to get better, you limit yourself.” As a result, when the time comes for a promotion discussion, your manager may wonder if you’ll be able to develop further if you’re set in your ways.

Try this: Not only do you want to become more accepting of constructive criticism, but you should regularly seek feedback so you can improve and adapt to changes at your company and in your industry.

What Can Stop Success?

Success doesn’t care how much you wish for it, if it did, everyone would be successful. If you want success to find you attractive and be associated with you, avoid these 7 things.

1. Procrastination

“I will do it later” is often equivalent to “I will never do it,” though that is never the real intention behind procrastinating something. The person who doesn’t want you to succeed is not your ex, neither is it your co-worker, nor destiny, but your dear habit called procrastination! Procrastination is not only the thief of time but the thief of your health, destiny, life, and success.

If you continue to live with procrastination, you will continue to push the gym and eating healthy to “later,” you will continue to push starting your business, going to school, or writing that book to “later”—which never really seems to arrive!

If you do not take procrastination to court and have a divorce today, it will live with you forever and make you unsuccessful. Procrastination and success can never live together. Where there is procrastination, there is no success; where there is success there is no procrastination.

If Bill Gates had procrastinated with Microsoft, he wouldn’t be a billionaire today. Instead of procrastinating your multi-million dollar idea, start now!

2. Fear of Failure

If you are afraid to fail, then you are not ready to succeed. Failure is not an obstacle, but a stepping stone to success. The more you fail, the higher your chance of reaching success if you do not give up.

Failure is a teacher—it teaches you what didn’t work out and, if you allow it, it will motivate you to find other ways that will work out. Unsuccessful people allow failure to cripple them. They give up in the face of failure and remain stagnant. If you want to succeed, you need to give up that fear of failure.

People who are crippled with fear may have an amazing idea to start a project, but they are often afraid it may fail, so they don’t start at all. But instead of feeling intimidated by the voice of fear and failure inside of you, ask yourself: What if it succeeds?

Failure is not the end of the road, giving up is! Be persistent.

3. Ignorance

The world is continuously changing, if you refuse to learn, you will be outdated. Knowledge is power. Learning doesn’t end in school. Whatever field you are in, you need to learn and update yourself with information constantly. Successful people have a habit of learning. If you find yourself constantly failing at something, don’t convince yourself success is on the way.

No! Genuinely ask yourself whether your failures are not self-inflicted as a result of your ignorance. If you want to open a coffee shop, but know nothing about coffee, no amount of determination and persistence will make you successful at it.

Persistently approaching your dreams in ignorance will persistently give you failure and defeat as results. Find time and learn first. Whatever you want to endeavour in, spend 90% of your time learning about it. Do not do anything without first learning, do not go into a business you do not fully understand.

4. Lack of Purpose

Everybody has a plan for you. Your TV cable company has a plan for you; they know you will help them increase their sales this year. Your internet service provider has a plan for you; they know you can’t afford to live without it. Your landlord has a plan for you. Your grocer has a plan for you. Your boss has a plan for you. Mark Zuckerberg has a plan for you; he knows you will log on to Facebook and help build his company. Everyone has a plan for you—except you!

If you want to be successful, you need to have a plan for yourself. If you do not plan to succeed, you automatically plan to fail. Every day you wake up, you need to know exactly why you are getting up. You need to have a purpose and plan for your life.

Successful people plan their life, they have a budget, they have dreams and aspirations. In order for you to succeed in life, you need to have a good plan and a sense of direction.

5. Lack of Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to take action regardless of the circumstances. To be successful, you need to have courage to bring your dream to reality in spite of obstacles. Courage is having confidence to take bold decisions regardless of storms.

Courage is action taken in faith and expecting positive results regardless of the situation. There will always be reasons why something cannot be done, but courageous people see things as doable and find ways to do it. They do not allow intimidation and fear to dictate their actions and decisions. They are results-oriented.

6. Fault Finding

It’s okay to see the fault, but if you want to be successful, don’t end there. Rather than complaining about what is wrong with something, find out how it can be made right.

Successful people are problem solvers. Instead of complaining about the rain, they invent an umbrella.

7. Lack of Self-belief

When the Wright brothers decided to make the plane and informed their dad, he said “If God wanted us to fly, he would have made us with wings.”

Engineers were told that building the Hoover Dam would be an impossible task—it’s too high, there’s too much water to control. They were told: “You are crazy, you shouldn’t even attempt such a job.”

When the scientists decided to visit the moon, more than half of Americans thought they were crazy. Newspaper articles were written to tell them how impossible it would be to go to the Moon. Other scientists also criticized them for believing such nonsense, explaining to them how it is impossible it would be.

The Wright brothers carried on despite the lack of confidence. Today, all those who criticized joyfully fly around the world. The Hoover dam was witnessed by the nay-sayers. When men landed on the moon, it was broadcast for all to see.

The point is to believe in yourself—it is enough. Don’t allow people to talk down on your dreams and tell you that they are impossible. Believing you can do it is all you need. What dream do you have today? Who is telling you it can’t be done? Go do it and prove everyone else wrong.

What Are 10 Good Habits?

What are good habits? Well, good habits are those that get you closer to living your best life and are fundamental to becoming successful and happy. Yet, as significant as habits are, some lack the knowledge of their capabilities.

While much of the emphasis falls on bad habits to break, it’s just as important to focus on good habits to have and cultivate in your daily routine.

Here, we’ll jump into a list of good habits to have to be more successful in life.

1. Begin Your Day With Meditation

We recommend mindful meditation early in the morning. This practice helps you to place yourself in the present moment. Consequently, it enables you to be mindful of challenging situations during the day.

Different stressors may trigger as you go through the day; meditation helps you to remain calm before taking on the challenges.

Personally, it helps me to devise strategies and think creatively. Meditation is a good habit to have if you want to be connected to what’s significant in your life.

2. Be Grateful for What You Have

It’s not uncommon to waste time thinking of what’s not enough. You become immersed in those daunting challenges. However, challenges justify the presence of hope. The only strategy you have to stop focusing on your problems is to focus on what you have.

Gratitude is a time-tested pathway to success, health, and happiness. It redirects your focus to what you have from what you lack. Try writing a list of things you’re grateful for each day in a gratitude journal, or make it a habit to say one thing you’re grateful for when you sit down to dinner with your family.

3. Smile

Can you pause and smile before you continue reading this?

Now, here is what just happened based on research conducted by the Association for Psychological Science; you set a pace for living a happier life when you smile. A genuine smile, or what’s called a Duchenne smile, is a good habit to have if you want to find spiritual, emotional, and mental peace of mind.

Smiling induces the release of molecules that help in fighting stress. The physiological state of your body determines the state of your mind. When you slouch or frown, your mind takes cues related to unhappiness and depression. However, once you adjust yourself by putting on a smile, you begin to feel a new level of excitement and vibrancy.

4. Eat a Healthy Breakfast

Starting your day with healthy eating is a good habit to have and forms a crucial part of your life. Nevertheless, about 31 million Americans skip their breakfast each day.

If you are fed up with hearing that breakfast is a crucial component of your day, you are only fighting the truth. If you want to become more successful, you need to “break your fast” with healthy foods every morning.

This habit is not difficult to form if you usually rush out the door every single morning. You can wake up early to fix yourself a meal so you don’t break down during the day.

5. Exercise Daily

One of the good habits to have is to exercise your body and muscles on a daily basis. You don’t have to run a marathon or lift tons of weights. You only need to engage in activities that oxygenate your blood and inject endorphins in your body, trying to squeeze in at least 15 minutes every day.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, classified exercise as a good habit to maximize his already jam-packed schedule. He said:

“I wake up by 5, meditate for 30 minutes, seven-minute workout times three, make coffee, and check-in.”

He has said that he follows this routine every day as it gives him a steady-state that empowers him to be more productive.

6. Manage Your Time

Another good habit is the act of managing your time effectively. This goes a long way toward impacting your achievement.

Time management is what separates the successful from the rest of the world, as we all possess the same amount of time. How you leverage time determines your potential to succeed in life.

So how do you manage your time effectively?

Here’s Jack Dorsey’s recommendation in one of the Techonomy events:

“I accomplish effective time management by theming my days and practicing self-discipline. These themes help me handle distractions and interactions. If a request or task does not align with the theme for that day, I don’t do it. This sets a cadence for everyone in the company to deliver and evaluate their progress”.

And this is Dorsey’s weekly theme layout:

• Monday – Management
• Tuesday – Product
• Wednesday – Marketing and growth
• Thursdays – Developers and partnerships
• Fridays – Culture and recruiting
• Saturdays – Taking off
• Sundays – Reflection, feedback, strategy, and preparing for Monday

No wonder he was able to run two companies when others were struggling with one job.

7. Set Daily Goals With Intentions

Everyone has goals, whether they relate to business or their personal life. The truth is that we’re all tending towards a particular direction. Nevertheless, while long-term goals can offer you direction, it’s your daily goals that help you develop short-term goals that are essential for your success.

Long-term goals may not give you the motivation you need to keep on, but when you implement your short-term milestones daily, you become fired up, and you can overcome the challenges that come with taking on bigger tasks.

Here’s the main truth: Successful people don’t set goals without establishing their intentions. According to Jennifer Cohen of Forbes,

“What helps you to achieve your desired expectation is ensuring intentions accompany your daily goals.”

8. Seek Inspiration

It is usually difficult to be inspired and feel good for a considerable length of time. Sometimes, you become discouraged and feel like giving up on your goals when things are not working out as intended.

A practical approach to stay on top of the situation is to inspire yourself each day. When you wake up in the morning (after meditation), watch some motivational videos and let the story of great leaders inspire you.

Establish what Anthony Robbins called the “hour of power.” Determine how many minutes you spend, but make it count. Inspiration is the fuel for achievement because when you can conceive it in your mind, you can accomplish it.

Michal Solowow, an investor and the founder of Mitex, puts it this way:

“The problems I encounter in everyday life motivate me to find solutions. This is a self-propelling mechanism. Becoming a billionaire was never a motivating factor.”

9. Save Steadily and Invest With Prudence

We can’t exhaust the good habits to have without talking about saving and investing. Most times, you overlook the significance of saving for the future when you are living in your present moment. According to CNBC, a $1000 emergency will propel many Americans into debt.

However, it is not enough to save, and you must invest your funds and be wise with them. If you pay attention to this now, you will set yourself up for a life of success in the future. Ensure you save at least six months in your emergency account so you can be prepared for any future emergency.

10. Budget and Track Your Spending

Benjamin Franklin warned of taking the precaution of little expenses. He said:

“A small leak sinks a great ship.”

It is easy to discard little expenses, but the truth is they always add up. This happens when you fail to budget.

Budgeting is a good habit to have, and it can impact your financial life significantly. The money you spend on extravagant lifestyles can be saved and invested in your future instead.

What is Considered a Toxic Employee?

Your employee may fall under one or more than one of the following categories of toxicity. Look for signs that might indicate you have one of these kinds of employees running rampant in your small business.

1. The bulldozer

For business success and growth, you need employees who are willing to come up with and defend their ideas. 

But you don’t need bulldozers.

Quite simply, bulldozers bulldoze their way through other peoples’ opinions and thoughts to get their way. They may interrupt their co-workers or constantly argue against what others say. Sometimes, bulldozers are loud. Sometimes they correct people using humor. 

Whatever the tactic may be, a bulldozer’s toxic traits may seep into your workplace. Keep an eye out for these top bulldozer traits:

1. Aggressive
2. “Strong personality”
3. Always right
4. Disruptive  

You may have employees who have bulldozer characteristics. If these traits sound familiar, there are several things you can do to help the situation. 

Meet regularly with employees so everyone feels like their ideas are heard. You may set up weekly one-on-ones to check in and nip problems in the bud. That way, your bulldozers and the people they bulldoze are equally heard. 

You may also consider gently talking to the employee with this type of personality to help them see what they’re doing. 

2. The passive-aggressive employee

A passive-aggressive individual is someone who doesn’t speak their mind when they’re upset. Instead, they indirectly show that they’re not happy about something. This can be very toxic for the workplace.

Imagine asking a co-worker to get something done. They’re unhappy with the task, but instead of telling you directly they make snippy remarks or procrastinate on doing the task. 

Here are a few quick facts about the passive-aggressive one:

1. Avoids direct conflict
2. Bitter or snarky 
3. Backhanded comments 
4. Puts off doing things they don’t agree with 

Someone who is a passive person may be more inclined to bottle their feelings and avoid taking action. When there’s conflict, they may get frustrated and display passive-aggressive behaviors. 

To help deal with this type of toxic characteristic, foster an environment of communication. Encourage your employees to express themselves. Give your workers plenty of opportunities to regularly talk with you (one-on-ones, suggestion boxes, etc.) to diffuse these types of situations. 

3. The complainer  

Ah, the complainer. You know the person – there’s always something wrong. They always have a burr in the saddle. You just want to grab them by the shoulders and say, “Lighten up!” (But that would be highly frowned upon.) 

So, instead, you let it go until the negativity builds and builds. But that building negativity has to go somewhere, and often it’s into the rest of your team and your company culture.  

Here are some signs that you’ve got a complainer on your hands:

1. Negative
2. “Woe is me”
3. Never happy
4. Nothing can go right  

To deal with the complainer, pay attention to their complaints. Maybe they always make negative comments about the same thing. If that’s the case, you may be able to talk to them and see if you can help (e.g., offer a flexible work schedule to help an employee who complains about their work-life balance).  

If a complainer just has a negative attitude about anything and everything, you may want to address it with them. Or you can talk to a group of employees about the importance of positivity in the workplace so they don’t feel like you’re singling them out.

4. The knowledge hoarder 

The desire for job security can be a dangerous thing. Employees who want to secure their jobs may decide to keep processes and business-related knowledge to themselves. 

But successful businesses thrive on the flow of open communication, shared knowledge and collaboration. 

A knowledge hoarder isn’t just detrimental to your team’s morale –they’re a liability to your company’s success. What happens if they leave? Where does all that hoarded information go? 

Here are some undeniable indicators of a knowledge hoarder:

1. Anti-team players 
2. Have independent processes 
3. Attention-seeking
4. Insecurities about work 

A workplace can’t run when you have at least one person hoarding knowledge and refusing to work on a team. To root out this problem, create a knowledge base and require all employees to share and manage documents (and other things within it). 

Another way you can discourage knowledge-hoarding actions is by rewarding those who don’t hoard knowledge. Praise employees or offer bonuses to employees who share information with others or help train new hires. 

5. The prideful one 

Do you have an employee who thinks they know it all? A prideful employee is easy to spot. Like the bulldozer, they are “always right.” And if they’re wrong, they’re slow to admit it. 

Pride can be a dangerous thing. As an entrepreneur, I try to stay humble and set a good example for my co-workers. Likewise, I look for leaders who exemplify humility. 

Here are some prideful employee red flags:

1. Slow to apologize
2. Quick to brag
3. Always right
4. Unresponsive to criticism 

As I said, I think it’s important for leaders to set a good example of humility. Another way you can help humble your prideful co-worker is by lifting up the employees who possess humility. 

6. The gossip   

Your employees likely enjoy talking with their fellow co-workers. Maybe they talk about work or their personal lives. 

Or maybe they’re dishing about other employees, your business’s status or even you. 

Gossip is often an unfortunate but inevitable part of the workplace. People like to talk. And those talks can often turn personal and pump life into the rumor mill. Gossip can bring resentment, expose personal affairs and cause frustration. 

Here are some signs of a gossiper: 

1. Always whispering 
2. Seems uncomfortable around certain people 
3. Talks about others to you 
4. Two-faced 

You can’t prevent gossip. But again, you can set a good example by not partaking in it. And you can try to be as transparent as possible when it comes to your business so you can beat employees to the punch.

We have a monthly newsletter that gives employees the lowdown on what’s happening at my company, Patriot Software. That way, my co-workers know that I’m upfront with them, and they can be upfront with me.  

7. The underperformer 

Your employees’ performance probably fluctuates depending on their strengths and weaknesses, mood and what else is going on at work. But if you have a perpetual underperformer, you have a toxic employee. 

And you know what else it means? Your other employees have to pick up the slack. Your employees don’t want that. Not to mention, your business can’t handle that long term. 

In a nutshell, these are the traits of an underperformer: 

1. Disengaged with their work
2. Fails to meet goals
3. Constantly needs others to pick up the slack  
4. Makes excuses 

To get the underperformer up to par, you may need to meet with them to find out why they are falling short. You might also decide to put them on a performance improvement plan to encourage a better work ethic. 

How Can I Get Rid of my Bad Habit in 21 Days?

When you’re ready to learn how to break a bad habit, the following tips can help.

1. Replace a Habit With a New One

Part of the habit is the routine that follows the initial trigger, so to reduce the impact of stopping a habitual behavior, you can replace it with another habit that has a more positive and healthy impact on your life.

Smoking is one of the most common habits people are looking to stop and a great example to use for this approach.

There are numerous things you could swap out for when you’re tempted to smoke. Some examples are:

1. Chew a piece of gum
2. Eat some fruit
3. Get a drink
4. Go for a walk
5. Play with something in your hands

It depends on your situation, but for any habit replacement, the key is to distract yourself long enough that the temptation to perform the negative habit passes.

2. Celebrate the Small Successes

Breaking a habit can take time. It can depend on how many times per day or week you repeat the habit you want to break or how ingrained it is into your lifestyle.

Whether you can break a habit in 21 days or 21 weeks, you need to celebrate every day where you haven’t repeated the habit. If you can only manage two days before cracking, then celebrate those two days. Don’t expect to break every habit immediately. It takes time.

If you only managed two days on the first try, celebrate next time you make it to a week and so on.

Before you know it, you’ll look back and laugh at the fact you could only manage two days at the start

3. Change Your Identity

Habits are often hard to break as they’re typically based on changing how we act in everyday life or are linked to a healthy lifestyle change. These are both fine, but it is more difficult if our identity is fighting against these changes.

To make real significant changes in our lives, we have to start thinking about how we need to change our identity first.

For example, if you’re trying to lose weight, but you think of yourself as someone who always struggles with your weight (“It’s just who I am”), then you’re going to continue to struggle to lose weight. Try changing your thought to “I am capable of making positive changes” and see what happens.

One of the most common examples is a smoker saying something like, “I am a smoker trying to quit” or “I like being a smoker but I need to quit.”

It would be best if you decided on who you want to be in life; this is the first step of changing your identity. If you tell yourself you like being a smoker, it’s unlikely you will be successful in the change you’re seeking to make.

“I’m a non-smoker” or “I’m fit and healthy” are things you can say to yourself daily in your head, quietly to yourself and to others. You can slowly start to change how you identify with yourself.

You’ll back this up with small wins, a streak of a few days with no cigarettes or repeatedly going to the gym or eating better.

Changing your identity takes time, but it can be done.

4. Use Digital Tools to Your Advantage

Digital or just general cell phone use is one of the most well known habits that many of us are trying to cut down on.

Typically, it’s scrolling through social media without noticing how long we’ve been doing it, constantly getting distracted by notifications, or just picking up our cell phone to check it as a distraction from work or life in general.

However, digital tools can be used to help us break a habit, either through reminders to keep us on track or rewards when we’re changing or creating a new positive habit.

Keeping track of a newly formed habit in the form of a streak is a great way to keep you focused and motivated. There are plenty of streak apps out there which let you create a streak, set reminders, and receive mini visual rewards when you hit certain milestones.

Rather than cutting out social media completely, change the reward of a particular habit to a set time period to look at your social networks.

By using social media on your terms rather than the other way around, it can become a positive addition to your life.

5. Use Visual Cues

One of the oldest and most effective ways for how to break a habit is through visual cues acting as reminders or rewards.

Placing visual reminders, cues, and trackers around your home gives you a cheap, easy, and effective way to keep your habits in the front of your mind. This could involve using a calendar on the fridge where you tick off every completed day since you’ve haven’t performed a negative habit, for example.

Something as simple as Post-It notes on the bedside table reminding you of your goal for that day can be a powerful mental cue to help you break a bad habit.

Visual cues are great as they become a habit in themselves. Taking the calendar on the fridge example, the trigger is seeing the calendar each morning. The routine is ticking off another day on the calendar, and then the reward is seeing the calendar filling up with ticks.

Simple but addictive!

6. Find a Habit-Crushing Partner

Breaking habits is hard, but finding support from a friend or partner can be incredibly helpful in keeping you focused on repeating your new habit or to stop you from repeating an old one.

Look at when your triggers typically happen and find a partner who will most likely be with you when these triggers occur. Have an open and honest discussion with them on what habit you’re trying to crush and explain how they can help.

Help from a partner could come in the following forms:

1. Simply asking how you are doing with stopping your habit — this keeps the habit in the forefront so you don’t relapse.
2. Helping you remove the triggers from the environment you share so the temptations are reduced.
3. Sharing the new reward with you if you’re changing a habit rather than removing it.
4. Finding a habit your both want to stop and doing it together.

7. Stack Your Habits

Stacking habits is a quick win when it comes to creating new positive habits.

We have thousands of tiny habits we do every day without even realizing it. This could be actions involved in brushing your teeth, the steps of making a cup of coffee when you first get up, putting the radio on when you go in the kitchen, etc.

As we already have thousands of habits we do every day, we can add new habits on top of them.

For example, if your goal is to learn 10 minutes of French each day, you do this after you’ve made your coffee each morning. If your goal is to practice visualization each day, you spend 3 minutes doing so when your alarm goes off each morning.

It’s that simple: link old habits to new ones.

8. Visualize New Habits

Visualization can help with breaking habits. However, the important part isn’t visualizing the outcome but visualizing the process or the routines you need to create to achieve it.

A study from UCLA found exactly this by comparing students who visualized the process necessary to achieve their goal versus visualizing the actual achievement of the goal. They found that students who did the former enhanced studying techniques and improved grades.

Practising visualization also helps to reduce anxiety around breaking a habit. In some cases, the habit you’re trying to break might cause you stress simply by thinking about it.

Visualizing a positive routine helps with this, even if you do it for only 2-3 minutes a day.

9. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is about being present in the moment and being aware of your thoughts and can, therefore, be a useful tool when learning how to break a bad habit.

By practicing mindfulness and becoming more aware of your triggers, you will increase the likelihood of success in breaking the habit. By recognizing the trigger before you go into the habit of the routine, you’ll be able to break the habit far quicker.

Mindfulness doesn’t mean you fight or block these thoughts. It simply allows you to engage with them in a more productive way.

What Are Examples of Success?

Success isn’t just about making money. There are actually 8 elements that you want to make sure are at world-class levels before you call yourself a winner. Let me identify them:

1. Inner Success. This includes a positive mindset, high-self respect, internal peace and a strong spiritual connection.

2. Physical Success. Your health is your wealth. What’s the point of getting to a great place in your career if you get sick doing it? Why be the richest person in the graveyard?

3. Family Success. When your family life is happy, you will perform better at work. No one gets to the end of their lives and regrets making their family a top priority.

4. Career Success. Actualizing your highest potential by reaching for the best in your career is incredibly important. Getting to greatness in your profession brings a feeling of satisfaction on a job well done.

5. Economic Success. Money is important. Makes life easier and better. Money allows you to live in a nice home. Take beautiful vacations and provide well for those you love.

6. Community Success. Human beings have a psychological need for connection and belonging. A rich network of mentors, interesting thinkers and valued friends just makes life better.

7. Adventure Success. To be fulfilled, each of us needs mystery in our lives. Challenge is necessary for happiness. The human brain craves novelty. And we are creative beings so we need to be creating constantly if we hope to feel joy. Lots of adventure (ranging from meeting new people to visiting new places) is an essential element of success.

8. Impact Success. Perhaps the deepest longing of the human heart is to live for something greater than itself. Each of us craves to be significant. To make a difference. To know that the world has somehow been better because we have walked the planet.

What Are The 5 Steps to Success?

Goals that we properly set, write down and focus on daily can be achieved faster and easier. Here are five steps to help you succeed in fulfilling your desires:

Step 1:  Set Goals with the Greatest Positive Impact

We are often pulled in many directions, which makes it hard to accomplish even one small goal. To prioritize your goals, look at all areas of your life such as family, health, career, finances, and leisure activities. Then decide what goal(s) in each area truly motivate you and will most positively impact your life.

Goal expert Brian Tracy, in his book Flight Plan, talks about his guaranteed success formula for achieving goals. He says to write down ten goals and identify one goal on the list that would have the greatest positive impact on life, a goal that is “your major definite purpose, your primary goal, and your most important destination for the next leg of your life’s journey.”

Read Also: Starting a Career in Management Consulting

Next, Tracy recommends transferring that goal to a clean sheet of paper, and making a list of potential obstacles with solutions as well as additional information, skills and people needed in order to achieve that goal. Finally, he says, organize this information into a plan and start taking action.

Step 2: Make SMART Goals for Best Results

To make goals that are focused and achievable, they need to be S.M.A.R.T., an acronym that typically means:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-limited

For example, instead of saying, “I want to start my own business,” a SMART goal would be: “I will start my own life coaching business that helps people with major life transitions by May 1, 2015.” The latter goal is specific in that there is no question as to what is trying to be accomplished. Also, anyone can determine whether or not it has been completed, which makes it measurable, and the time-limitation helps create the motivation.

Also part of the SMART criteria is to make sure that the goal is achievable and realistic. When we set ourselves up for potential failure, it can be disempowering and motivation can be lost. We do need to stretch ourselves when goal setting to maximize our potential, but the goal should not be so far out of reach that, more than likely, it is impossible to achieve.

Step 3: Writing Goals Down Is Essential

In Henriette Anne Klauser’s book, Write it Down, Make it Happen: Knowing What You Want – And Getting It, she says that writing down your goals is the first step towards achieving them. She talks about Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, once a “lowly technology worker in Corporate America,” who spent 15 minutes a day writing down: “I will become a syndicated cartoonist.”

After many rejections and through perseverance, she says, Scott became a syndicated cartoonist in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide and is now known all over the world.

Writing goals in a daily planner, a journal or even on sticky notes, helps focus our attention on them and makes them more real.

Step 4: Think of Potential Obstacles and Real Solutions

Winston Churchill said, “Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” Successful people fail more than unsuccessful people simply because they keep trying no matter what obstacles they come across.

Obstacles to achieving goals can include fear of failure, fear of success and lack of self-confidence. An obstacle can be less threatening if there are potential solutions. So think about some real solutions to help overcome roadblocks in the path to your success. Often the best solution is to simply re-connect with your driving force or compelling vision for achieving the goal.

Step 5: Focus on Goals Everyday

Focusing daily on our goals helps us succeed in reaching them because it’s a constant reminder of what we desire in life. Two ways to keep goals present in the mind are:

• Think from the end – Dr. Wayne Dyer, internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development, in his book The Power of Intention, says that to manifest what we desire, “continuously contemplate yourself as being surrounded by the conditions you wish to produce.” Imagine what life will look like once the goal is realized and the joy and satisfaction you will feel.
• Visualize – Create a vision board with pictures, symbols and words relating to goals, or even a simple daily visualization practice where you imagine yourself having achieved the goal as mentioned above.

Passion and Hard Work

Achieving important goals in life can truly be difficult yet so rewarding. Enthusiasm, self-discipline, commitment, and perseverance are what’s needed to get our desired results. Once a goal is realized, a dream turned into reality, we gain acknowledgment that through hard work and passion nothing is impossible.