“If you don’t sacrifice for what you want then what you want becomes the sacrifice”

–Anonymous

The outlines

To achieve success, some certain habits and hobbies need to be dialed down and or completely stopped due to how they influence us on a conscious level, subconscious level and our ability to stay focused on the bigger picture. 

I am by no means telling you what to discard from your life but rather I will equip you with an arsenal of questions which will help guide you into choosing, by yourself what should be completely sacrificed and what should be reduced/dialed down to accommodate success in your life. After you ask the questions, I’m about to give you, you will need to analyze where in your life you need to cut out unproductive and destructive habits.

These questions will help you understand what you have to sacrifice, I’ll give you examples of how I went about cutting out unnecessary things from my life using these questions.

Which of my habits diminish my productivity?

This was some time ago when my life was pretty rocky, I had major depression and anxiety, it was a living nightmare horror movie. At the time I copped with my problems by using illegal substances. I would use these substances quite literally every day, it got so bad I stopped socializing because my brain didn’t see the need for it but then I decided to quit everything I was doing because I still had a dream in which I was a successful entrepreneur. So just like that I deleted my suppliers numbers and threw away the remaining stash, at first it was hard trying to live without the use of illegal substances, I had insomnia for the first 2 weeks, my heart rate was through the roof and I had an appetite disorder but as time progressed things somewhat went back to normal and after many months of rehabilitation I was finally able to kick a bad habit.

Identify any bad habits at all and analyze as to whether or not they will severely weigh down your progress.

Is my daily routine impacting negatively on my plans?

We all have a routine we either flow out of planning or because circumstances dictate we follow that routine, with this one the main thing you have to do is manage your time in such a way that you will get enough time to pursue activities that go hand in hand with achieving your goals, for example, I used to wake up at 6:30 prepare for 50 minutes then leave for school come back after nine hours watch TV and play video games for the rest of the day then fall asleep, I would repeat this process day in and day out not allowing time for personal growth. After I got extreme motivation to pursue my dreams I looked at my daily routine and said to myself “that won’t get me anywhere”, I pulled up my socks and planned a proper routine which allowed me to research and write ideas for 2 and a half hours a day, I generally slept around 10:30 to midnight depending on how engaged I was that particular day. (BTW you should always aim for success while you’re young that way when you’re older you will have loads of experience in your particular discipline and who knows you might have already made it by then 😉)

How many hours a day do I find myself distracted by things like social media/my phone in general, TV, etc?

If you think your phone doesn’t distract you then you’ve utterly lost it. Everyone gets distracted by something, the phone most especially but depending on what you’re doing on your phone then the situation changes, for instance, if you use your phone for business, taking notes, research, practicing how to write better, learning (like what you’re currently doing on this blog, which I think you should visit again), trading the stock market and recording YouTube videos then you’re in the green but if you spend 3 hours a day viewing memes then you need to dial down a considerable lot, memes are great for a quick laugh but not for great success (unless you own a Facebook meme page).

Watching and or bingeing on TV shows is great especially when on either work or school holiday, after all, we are only human and overloading ourselves with work all the time is never a good idea but if you find yourself doing what I was doing after school, just watching TV shows and playing video games until bedtime then you have to consider dialing down on this as well. 

Know which programs you love and watch those only instead of watching whatever the TV throws your way, the same thing if you stream shows online.

Are there any people in my life that always put me in a bad/unproductive mood?

If they are family then you can’t kick them out of your life but you can ignore their behavior, this will deter them from picking you out as a target because you won’t satisfy their objective of inducing a negative reaction out of you. If they are a “friend” tell them straight up that what they are doing is wrong or if you find that difficult, distance yourself from that person, they will wonder why you did so then they will proceed to confront you on the situation, this is when you tell them that their behavior has been toxic. From there proceed to sort things out, but if they think they haven’t behaved in any toxic manner then there’s only one thing to do and that’s to let them go.

If it’s a co-worker who suddenly appears out of nowhere to belittle you, give them shit as well, this will show them that you’re not afraid of them and their childish tendencies’, but a diplomatic route can also be taken on this (though I gave the person shit just as he gave me shit because I believe that what you put in is what you get out, Newton’s third law reinterpreted)

Am I lazy?

This one is pretty simple right, now imagine a scenario where two guys Bob and Tom have both envisioned their success they know their strengths and weaknesses, they have been learning every day and they have been changing their mindset from that of a fixed mindset to that of a growth mindset, but the catch is Tom was too damn lazy to get any project started, he couldn’t even write down the ideas in his head, Bob, on the other hand, was able to start his project, at first laziness was a prominent factor in his work ethic but gradually over time Bob got in the swing of things, it reached a point where bob eat work for supper just because he decided to kill laziness from his life. Now be a Bob not a Tom (sorry if your name is Tom) change isn’t rapid it’s gradual, now if Bob who is a human being can do it so can you.

Using a technique known as the 2-minute rule, you can, with absolute certainty kill laziness. Learn more about the 2-minute rule here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3QJke9_Z4o

Great you’ve reached the end, thanks for reading and I know for a fact you got something out of this. Having said that I trust that you will revisit when we take a look at Finding the time of day when you’re most creative. 

Next blog in 2 days!