1. Comparing yourself
Our society is built on comparison. From social media where people only show the amazing moments in their life to make others feel bad about their own life, to people getting jealous after not having the newest phone or the most expensive bag. But comparison tears down your confidence in ways that will impact you deeply in the future. Comparison should only be used in one way, to build up your confidence. The way to do this is to only compare yourself to the person you were yesterday, last week, last month, last year…
2. Checking your phone as soon as you wake up
This toxic habit is way more influential than you think. Checking your phone as soon as you get up can pretty much ruin your day. It makes you cranky, it makes you less productive, but worst of all, it makes sure that you are thinking about other people instead of yourself, right when you should be focusing on your own wellbeing. The morning. The morning is for you, it is where you chose how you set up your day. Don’t let it go to waste by focusing on other people’s lives through social media.
3. Not letting go of the past
This is a toxic habit I am still struggling to let go of. If we are always holding onto the past, it can affect our present. The mindset of our worst moments in the past that we relive over and over again in our head can seep into our thoughts, actions, and hopes in the present. The past is the past, the present is the present, and the future is the future. We need to let go of the past, be in the present, and hope for the future.
4. Burning out
This toxic habit can ruin all aspects of our life. Has there been any moments in your life where you have wan’t to do everything, all at once? Raise your hand. *Raises hand.* These thoughts and feelings our totally normal in our get stuff done world, where it is too easy to always be wanting to get stuff done. But too much of this leads to burn out and exhaustion. Make sure to eat, breathe, sleep, exercise, get outside, get off your devices, and take breaks when you need them.
5. Getting no sleep
You might feel that sacrificing a good night’s sleep to get more work done or watch more episodes of your show is a good idea, but that is not the case. Anything you can do at 2 a.m can be done way faster and better in the morning. When you stay up late and don’t sleep, you are sacrificing a whole day of productivity ahead of you. If you have a deadline and you need to work at 2 a.m, so be it, but if not wait for the morning or whenever you work best to get it done.
6. Not drinking any water
If you are anything life me, drinking an excellent amount of water at school can be hard. Now that it is summer + online learning, drinking water should be much easier. Check out the 17 benefits of drinking more water here, to build your motivation. My number one tip for how to drink more water is to make it interesting. Get some aesthetic mason jars and metal straws, cut up some fruit to add flavor, do whatever it takes to make yourself excited to drink water. Or build a routine. Every two hours I will fill my water bottle. After I go outside, I will fill my water bottle. Make it interesting, and/or make it a routine.
7. Not believing in yourself
How can you do anything in life if you don’t believe in yourself? Something i’ve noticed about believing in yourself is that it is easier when you have accomplished something. You feel confident after you have accomplished something, and that confidence is exactly what you need to have belief. If you want to believe in yourself more, find more instances in your life where you can have confidence.
8. Being surrounded by toxic people
You might feel guilty cutting people out of your life, I know I do. But when you look back on it a month, a year, five years from now, you will see how much cutting out toxic people benefited you and you will say wow, thank god those people are out of my life, they were only dragging me down.
Thank you for reading!