8 Things You Should Give Up If You Want To Be Successful
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Benjamin Franklin
Here’s the hard truth: there are many things that you should give up if you want to be successful. And I don’t mean the obvious ones like alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes.
I mean much more subtle things that most people don’t even realize they’re doing wrong. Here are 8 things you should give up if you want to succeed in life.
Complaining
Every minute you spend complaining is a minute you could be getting ahead. There’s no room for bellyaching in business.
The moment you catch yourself complaining about how bad things are, stop it immediately. And by all means, don’t whine to your co-workers or boss, save it for your journal or diary instead.
Achieving success takes hard work and dedication, and complaining will get you nowhere fast! So put a lid on it, deal with what needs to be dealt with, and move on.
Think of complaining as a way of showing weakness; people who complain can’t control their lives so they complain about them instead.
Don’t give anyone an excuse to think of you that way. You’re better than that!
Many people think that being successful means not having any problems at all.
But we all have problems — it’s part of life. What makes us different from others is how we deal with those problems when they arise: do we sit around feeling sorry for ourselves or do we find solutions?
Waiting for Happiness
Some people live their entire lives waiting for happiness to arrive, but there’s a downside to waiting around. Our minds tend to fixate on what we don’t have, and while doing so we end up ignoring all of our blessings.
Think about it: Do you know someone who always complains about not having enough money, but never stops to consider all of their possessions?
How about those who seem to be unhappy despite being surrounded by supportive friends and family? The truth is that you don’t need everything you want to feel fulfilled and maybe happiness will find you if you stop waiting for it.
Personal Excuses
A lot of people don’t want to give up their excuses. Whether it’s for laziness, stress, or other things. But if you want to be successful at something, there’s just no room for a lot of excuses in your life.
The reality is that most people have a pretty small margin for error when it comes to being successful and taking shortcuts isn’t going to cut it, at least not all of them.
When you look at what separates successful people from others who are struggling and complaining about everything under the sun, you usually find that one simple factor: Effort.
To reach any level of success (personal or professional), most experts agree that you need an unrelenting commitment to making yourself better every single day.
Laziness
No matter how much you hate your job, you’re going to have to do it. Staying in bed or on your couch all day won’t get you ahead.
Remember that success is for lazy people too, you just have to be more productive than everyone else.
Once you set goals for yourself, never let anything, even laziness,get in between them and you. Get out of bed, leave your house and start working towards something bigger than yourself.
Every person who has ever succeeded was once a person who failed many times before they did anything great. Except they didn’t give up!
Gossiping
While it may seem harmless to talk about your neighbor or co-worker’s life, doing so can be bad for you in two ways.
First, gossiping isn’t particularly flattering to you, as it implies that you don’t have anything better to do than listen to other people talk. Second, and more importantly, gossiping hurts your reputation.
The next time someone asks you if they can trust you with a secret or with an important task at work (or elsewhere), they may think twice before giving you a chance.
Not Planning Ahead
Many people have a hard time accepting their fate; unfortunately, that can mean we put off making important decisions.
Research shows that these procrastinators often don’t follow through with their plans. But even if they do, experts point out that chances are good they’ll put so much pressure on themselves to execute perfectly (because of their lengthy preparation), they’ll perform worse.
Instead of waiting for things to happen, try getting ahead of them: Start by asking yourself some tough questions, such as If I knew how I was going to die in two months, what would I do differently?
Or if I knew my relationship with my boss was going to be over in three months, what would I do differently?
Stop Dwelling on the Past
No one likes to hear it, but your past is behind you. It’s a done deal. Dwelling on how you got to where you are today, whether it’s looking back with pride or shame doesn’t do anything to benefit your future.
Keeping up with old friends and colleagues will help keep those memories fresh, but don’t lose time worrying about what could have been if things had played out differently.
Just enjoy where you are now. Have you found success? Now make sure that success sticks around.
Taking No Risks
Taking too few risks is bad, but so is taking unnecessary risks.
If you’re not willing to take any risks, you’ll never get anywhere in life.
While it’s a good idea to avoid doing risky things like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute on your bucket list, if that type of activity is what makes you happy and keeps you from being bored, then go for it!
On top of that, some things we perceive as risky are quite safe when approached properly.
Final Thoughts
There is a popular saying which says success is 90% failure. This means that most of your success will come after you have failed several times, but you never lose heart and continue to keep trying again and again.
However, despite how encouraging such a quote may sound, it still can be pretty discouraging to make mistakes; especially if they lead to failure or bad results.
But there are some things we should give up if we want to succeed in life, like a self-defeating attitude, lack of confidence, and wrong friendships. Hope this helps.
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