A good habit takes months or even years to build. But it takes less than a week to build bad habits.
And once they form, they work as an invisible force to weaken your thoughts and kill you from inside.
They keep you dull, negative, unproductive, and stressed. It can lead to depression, headaches, and other mental disabilities.
Well, no one is perfect! We all have some positive and negative. But no one knows the real devil inside you.
And the only thing you can do is to look inside you and see what habits reside in you that you need to quit immediately.
1. Complaining
Our brain is designed to discover quick and easy solutions to problems.
It’s easy to complain.
Right?
The moment you start complaining, your brain starts to find solutions to a problem you are complaining about.
For instance, you want to ‘create an App’, but you know nothing about it! (But you want to do it because it’s part of your dream project.)
The first thing that comes to your mind… Oh…. Come on! I can’t do it. Forget about it!
And once it’s in your mind, your brain stops looking for the possibilities.
End of the game!
Even if you think you should try once, your brain gives you reasons to stop thinking about it.
So what our brain does is that it gives you hundreds of reasons to kill every single thought.
And the beauty is that they are not just reasons, they are suggestions that satisfy you and make you comfortable.
They give you temporary satisfaction… (I can’t do it because I have no coding skills, no college degree or I’ve no CS background, etc.)
And once you agree with these suggestions, your brain destroys the thought completely.
In fact, if you continue to complain, it can shrink the hippocampus; a part of the brain responsible for critical thinking and intelligence.
“Repeating something that makes your brain relax/comfort, becomes your habit. And unknowingly, it trains your brain to skip everything that is out of your comfort zone.” _________ beginnesblog.org
Key points – ( If you complain…)
- You try to escape difficulties
- It kills your thoughts and intelligence
- Temporary satisfaction
- You’ll become unproductive, futile, or uncreative.
- It drives you into your comfort zone
2. Comparing
Whenever I compare myself with a celebrity or a billionaire like Elon musk, I feel like I don’t even exist on this earth. (This is known as an upward comparison)
And if I compare myself with a person poorer than me, a sense of fulfillment flares. (This is also known as a downward comparison)
Why does our brain compare so bad?
Okay! Listen…
According to NCBI’s NeuroReport, ‘comparative thinking plays a ubiquitous role in person perception and social cognition as a whole’
The comparison only happens if there is a gap.
A gap means; something you’re missing, failed to achieve, or under-achieved.
For example, I’m an intermediate blogger and always compare myself with successful bloggers. It’s the human tendency to think like this.
To a certain extent, it’s a healthy comparison. And we all need to do this to achieve better in our life.
Healthy comparison is not bad but the unhealthy comparison is a bad habit.
Healthy comparison can inspire you to achieve what you’re trying to achieve. It also helps you to boost your self-esteem and can fill the gap with achievements and prosperity.
Most importantly, the comparison is potent for Youngers or under-achievers. Because they are unprocessed AND inexperienced. Despite all, curious to achieve a big list of goals.
So – As long as you have something to achieve, there is always a gap to fill. And if there is a gap, there is a comparison.
But as you grow older, you achieved what you could in your life and can only regret what you didn’t achieve in course of your life.
Next, let’s talk about unhealthy comparisons…
It’s like you want to achieve the capabilities of a Cheetah (which runs 60 miles/hr.)
And you know, you’ll never be like a cheetah; humans are not capable of running fast.
So the point is that if you compare yourself with someone who has abstract capabilities, situations, background, and skills, you’re performing an unhealthy comparison.
And it gives you a sense of unfulfilled that can keep you disapproved and stressed.
Key Points –
- Downward comparison can improve one’s self-esteem and give him a sense of positive feeling.
- Upward comparison can also be helpful to a certain extent. It drives you to do more, inspires you to achieve something better in your life
- But if done badly, it affects your judgment and deviates your brain
3. Watching News
Watching media news; especially the controversial negative news can impact the power of your brain’s thinking, behavior, decision-making ability, and emotions.
In fact, over-consumption of bad news can spoil your physical and mental health too.
Your brain reacts to everything you watch or listen to daily. So surrounding yourself with negative news, media and controversy can increase stress levels and also result in depression and anxiety.
Annie Miller on https://www.verywellmind.com/says that ‘Consuming the news can activate the sympathetic nervous system, which causes your body to release hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Then, when a crisis is happening, and we are experiencing stress this stress response more frequently, Miller says physical symptoms may arise. Some of the most common symptoms are fatigue, anxiety, depression, and trouble sleeping.’
So make sure you do not consume too much bad news. It’s really important to keep the balance.
4. Procrastination
Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing a task. It is one of the bad habits you can always be suffering from.
Many think that it’s because of laziness or poor time management. But boys, it’s not!
Your brain generates over 6,000 thoughts in a day, as described in a paper published in Nature Communication.
And your mood is certainly responsible for procrastinating things. Because it relies on instant rewards.
Scientifically it’s called ‘time-inconsistency which refers to the tendency of the human brain to value immediate rewards over future rewards
So if you plan something for the future, your brain looks for instant rewards. And if somehow your brain discovers something else that offers instant gratification or reward for that moment, you lose control of what you set out to do.
And finally, you end up delaying what you set to do today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and then a week, a month, and a year, and lastly, you forget about it.
So here you see procrastinating a little task can drag you behind your future goals.
And once it becomes your habit, you’ll no longer be able to achieve big in your life.
Key Points –
- Procrastination is the reason why people don’t play big
- It programs your mind to value the instant rewards
- Time-inconsistency is the reason why we procrastinate
- And most importantly, you lose patience
5. Pessimistic
If you are pessimistic, you have the tendency to expect bad in every situation.
And if you love thinking like this, you’re full of negativity. As a result depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, high blood pressure, and other mental health problems.
Being optimistic about the future can give you the power to take the right actions. And doing this can help you make your present self strong enough to pursue your dream in the future.
Even if you can’t be positive or optimistic, at least stay neutral to handle a bad situation.
Let’s take an example for better interpretation…
Imagine that you’re doing your academics and your parents have great expectations from you.
Suddenly, you make a new move in your career and now you want to become a singer.
You worked hard, and practice more but get rejected in the audition all the time.
Because of too many rejections and failures, you accept the fact that you made a bad decision.
Turns out, you become pessimistic about your career and start thinking worst in most situations.
Too much career pressure, failure, and acceptance of bad decisions can make you inferior.
And it makes you powerless, hopeless, and stressed.
So here the point is that think about the possibilities and create an opportunity. Pessimism is not going to help you in bad situations. You need to work harder and try more to get out of this.
6. Social Media & Television
Addiction to Social Media & Television growing tremendously. In fact, a teen spends 9 hours a day on social media.
It’s really worth your attention – You sleep for 6 hours and waste 9 hours on social media just to entertain yourself.
And finally, you left with 8-9 hours a day. OUT of this, you still need to go to the office and do other stuff.
So how you can expect to do something new in your life if you don’t even have time to think about tomorrow.
On top of all, young single females are more addicted to social media than other age groups. (Study says)
So the bottom line is that ‘your time is more precious than anything else, and social media use your time to make money.’
And the most important thing is that you can only get any value on social media as a creator, not as a user.
7. Bad Eating Habits
People love eating so bad. And the main reason behind overeating is TASTE.
So the question is – Does eating affect your mental health?
YES, it does…
Actually, your brain is so connected to your gut bacteria that everything you eat affects your mental health.
Study shows that ‘a lowest quality diet increases the risk of depression by 80% in teens’
A healthy diet is crucial for brain development and produces what we call protein building blocks, brain tissues, enzymes, and neurotransmitters (Deliver signals to your brain.) to carry messages from the gut to the brain.
Actually, a healthy diet produces healthy gut bacteria and it helps your brain cells to grow.
So next time when you go for lunch check whether or not it’s a healthy diet. Because if it’s not, it’s going to displease your gut bacteria.
8. Sleeping Late
According to research, ‘sleeping late can cause asthma and allergies in teenagers’
It’s one of the most common bad habits everyone encounters nowadays.
Sleeping late can be a reason for being unproductive, and stressed, and cause an unhealthy life.
If you want to be more active, healthy, and disciplined, then you need to learn to wake up early in the morning.
Waking up early in the morning can improve your productivity and work efficiency. And for this to happen, you need to go to bed early at night.
Final Thoughts –
Breaking out of Bad habits can take reasonable time. And comfort zone, undisciplined, and complaining are some basic human characteristics that make it impossible.
Any of these bad habits are powerful enough to affect your decision, productivity, stress rate, and mental illness.
So better you never adopt these habits. And even if you do, make sure you train your brain to control these feelings before they become your habit.
Do you have any of these bad habits? Let me know in the comment section!
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