Do You Have Bad Habits That Are Stopping Your Success?

“Make the choices that make you nervous. If you make the choice that’s the easy way out, that wasn’t the big vision or big choice to make.” 

– Eileen Burbidge, partner of Passion Capital

Are you a procrastinator, over spender, or even think that might be using stereotypes to make decisions in your business? Then keep reading to learn how you move away from these bad habits!

When I look back on all the classes that I have taken especially my graduate courses, I remember having to learn about my good and bad habits. When I was able to identify those, I got better at note taking, writing papers, collaborating with group members, and studying for exams. I was very surprised by those outcomes.

But it was not easy to figure out my bad habits and it wasn’t easy to let go of them either! 

So while working as a school psychologist, I could understand how it felt when I watched coworkers find out about their bad habits and wanted to stop them so that they could be more productive and effective in their roles.

I also remember speaking with parents and students about those bad habits that they had and how they were seeing how those bad habits were negatively impacting their progress. Bad habits form in all of us at some point in our lives.

But sometimes, it might seem easier to stick with our bad habits because that’s what we know….and that’s what’s comfortable to us. But in sticking with them, are we not selling ourselves short? 

Think about this for a few seconds. You know that what you’re doing is a bad habit and you know that it’s not helping you move forward towards achieving your goals. But yet we still want to hold onto that bad habit, right?

Again, it has to do with being in our comfort zone.

Remember the quote that I mentioned at the beginning: 

“Make the choices that make you nervous. If you make the choice that’s the easy way out, that wasn’t the big vision or big choice to make.” 

– Eileen Burbidge, partner of Passion Capital

As business owners, we have to take risks that may make us nervous. It doesn’t matter if your are an Independent Business Owner, small business owner, micro business owner, or Independent Franchise Owner. We all have to take risks at some point to move our businesses towards the success that we want.

That risk could include stopping those bad habits that we have that are not helping us reach our success. As you are reading this and thinking about your bad habits, you might feel your heart start to race and maybe even start to get sweaty palms.

Stay calm! I am not saying that you have to stop right this second, because that’s easier said that done.

So you still with me?

Great!

What are Bad Habits Anyways?

The Free Dictionary defines a bad habit as “A patterned behavior regarded as detrimental to one’s physical or mental health, which is often linked to a lack of self-control.”

The Positive Psychology People’s website has an article by Stuart Dickson, who defines bad habits as “a negative behavior pattern.”

Now we’re on the same page about what bad habits are. But are you seeing the connection to how your bad habits are impacting your business? If not, don’t worry. I’m going to share some more about bad habits to help you make that connection.

Some of the bad habits that we might have as business owners include procrastination and over spending. When you are thinking about your bad habits, I’m talking about knowing the things that you have to do in your business but finding all other things to do instead then complaining that your business is not improving.

Another possible bad habit is those times when you see something new pop up on your screen or someone in your network tells your about a new product or service and you’re convinced that you need to get it for your business so you buy it. Even if you don’t have the money to be spending on that thing, somehow you can find the money for that but not necessarily for the things that you really need in your business

Then there may be some of us that are making decisions in our businesses based on stereotypes and we might not even be realizing it! As business owners, we need to become aware of our implicit biases and our stereotypes as these can impact who we hire on our team, how we help team members to develop their skills, the vendors that we do business with, and even with who we have in our networks.

How to Stop Bad Habits

So, now that we have talked about our bad habits, let's talk about what can you do to stop your bad habits.

1. Think about what happens that leads to you start to engage in your negative habit. When you do this, you will be in a better position to identify where you can now start doing a positive habit

2. You can replace the bad habit with a good one then give yourself a reward for doing the positive thing instead. Whatever it is you choose to be your positive habit that you want to start forming, remember that it has to be bigger and more rewarding that your negative habit if you are to stick with this new habit.

3. Use visualization whenever you feel tempted to use that bad habit. I have a resource on visualization that is a great place to start learning about visualization.

4. When you engage in that bad habit, look at what you are getting in return. This will help you gain awareness of the result of your bad habit.

Remember that each of us has habits: positive and negative ones. It’s up to us how we stop our bad habits.

Stopping bad habits does not happen in a second, but if you really want your business to survive then you know that you will need to stop your bad habits so that you can be a successful entrepreneur and reach your goals.

If you are ready to, submit your coaching application and see if you qualify for a customized coaching program to meet your specific needs. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. 

Regards, 

Dr. Priscilla "Dr. P" Kucer

Solutions+Actions=Results! (SoAR!)