10 Unhealthy Habits to Quit for a Better Life:
You NEED to stop doing these things!
Making 2024 your best year is not always about becoming something new. It has much to do with taking things out of your life as it is about adding to your life.
Unhealthy habits are any behaviours that you usually engage in that impact your health, wellbeing, life, or other people negatively.
1. Gossiping:
What good will talking about how ill-fitting Jane’s dress is or how Rose’s relationships never last? Gossiping does not only dampen the mood but it also repels people from you. I know you are only trying to get people to see how horrible your boss is by highlighting all their flaws and attacking their personal life.
Gossiping is a bad look on you. People associate traits that you use to describe other people with you. When you constantly use words such as obnoxious, arrogant, idle, irresponsible, or lazy to describe other people. People start associating those words with you.
To nip this bad habit in the bud, stop hanging out with your gossiping crew. The squad that keeps tabs on everybody’s business and spreads rumours around. The type of people who only get together because of other peoples’ demise.
2. Doom Scrolling:
Spending hours scrolling on Tik Tok, Instagram, or X(formerly Twitter) has become the norm. We crave instant dopamine so much that we spend hours and hours looking for our next fix, the next video we will find that will make us laugh.
When our screen time is that high, no wonder we do not have enough time to workout, start that business or take on a new hobby. Is that how you want to live your life, by watching other people live theirs?
3. Talking Over People:
Talking over someone is not only impolite, it is downright disrespectful. You are not asserting dominance in a group by preying on the unsuspecting, who have soft and sweet voices. You are just advertising how much of a jerk you are.
Instead of talking over people. You can replace this horrible habit with listening. Be the one person who maintains eye contact with the person who just got talked over. Stand up for them. Say, “Excuse me, Brenda is still talking.”
4. Not Investing:
Investing is not for the rich, it is how you get rich. It is one of the ways to make your money work for you. Do not look at it as depriving yourself, look at it as a gift to your future self.
Look up how to start investing on YouTube and learn about it. Once you have enough information to start, do it. Do not wait any longer.
5. Spending Your Savings:
Your savings are not free money that you can spend whenever on whatever. Stop dipping into your savings. Even worse, do not make the excuse that you will spend your savings anyway so there’s no use even starting.
Depending on what your savings are for. Create a list of conditions that must be met before spending your savings. What type of things are worth using your savings on. First make sure that the thing you want to spend your savings on meets these conditions.
Make this list before everything, not when you are already desperate for money and thinking with your emotions.
6. Poor Sleep Hygiene:
Is your sleeping routine non-existent? Do you sleep and wake up whenever you feel like it? Do you enjoy that? Is that working for you?
I know having a set bedtime is not sexy. I know falling asleep with your face full of make-up in front of a Netflix show sounds good in the moment. You know for a fact that it won’t feel as a good in the morning. Do yourself a huge favor and remove your make-up before bed, have a set time to wake up and sleep, leave your cellphone in the other room when you go to bed. I know it is hard but it will get easier. I promise.
7. Procrastinating:
Are you happy with the way you have been spending your time? I mean this is only the third year that you have written ‘Publish my first novel’ on your New Year’s Resolution. However, you cannot publish a book you haven’t written.
All the hours you have spent on Netflix, Tik-Tok or Instagram. You could have spent them outlining your book, developing your idea, researching, or writing your first draft. I am not trying to make you feel guilty. I want you to actually reflect on your choices and see how differently your life could turn out if you were to choose to spend your time more wisely.
The cost of procrastination truly is the life you could have lived.
8. Being Late:
You are not fashionably late. You are fashionably disrespecting other peoples’ time. You are fashionably getting other people worked up for having to wait for you when they did not account for your disorganisation.
Save yourself the stress and save others the annoyance and anger and just get there on time. Being late is a habit, like all habits. It is breakable.
9. Smoking:
Do I need to convince you that smoking is bad for you? Do I really need to tell you all the health risks that come with smoking?
10. Being Sedentary:
You do not have to take 10 000 steps a day. However you need to take more steps than walking from your bed to the fridge throughout the day.
Make time to take a 30 minutes walk daily or walk around the block during your breaks. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk wherever you can. Set a step goal that is reasonable for you and your schedule. Do whatever you can to add more steps in your day.
Breaking habits, especially ones that you have come to rely on all your life is not easy but it is doable. Being a better version of yourself requires you to stop participating in habits that delay or stand in the way of your success. It requires taking an honest look at your life and shedding habits that keep you stuck.
Pick one bad habit that you would like to stop doing and work on stopping it. Start small and give yourself grace. Be proud of yourself for wanting a better life for yourself and for taking steps towards a better life.
