6 Bad Habits Every Entrepreneur Needs To Quit NOW To Be Successful

Everyone has a bad habit that they probably don't like talking to others about.

They're like our little guilty pleasures that we can never seem to stop no matter how hard we try.

Luckily for you, I've written an article previously on exactly how to quit any bad habits that you may have.

But today, we're going to be talking about some habits that many of us may have which we might not be aware of.

Bad habits that we, as entrepreneurs, must identify and stop nonetheless.

Any bad habit can be detrimental to your success, sapping the time out of your day without you knowing it.

In this article, we're going to talk about 6 bad habits that any entrepreneur must quit in order to be successful.

These habits are likely not your everyday bad habits that you hear people talking about like biting your nails.

So what are these 6 bad habits that you must quit right now?

Sleeping/waking up late

This has been (by far) the hardest thing for me to overcome.

Sleep has always been my kryptonite because no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to beat it.

Humans require an optimal amount of sleep in order to feel the most energetic throughout the day.

If you feel like you wake up and are tired immediately, this could be why - you're not getting the right amount of sleep.

Waking up tired doesn't always originate from getting too little sleep.

If you oversleep - sleep longer than 6-8 hours which is scientifically proven to be the optimal time, you can wake up feeling tired and sluggish.

Research has been done that shows how after a certain amount of sleep deprivation, you start to function worse than a drunk person.

 I've spoken about the 'chronotype quiz' before in a few articles. It's a test that tells you what chronotype you are and what the optimal times you should wake up or go to sleep are.

Before we go to sleep, it's recommended that you don't expose yourself to lots of blue light - this is your TV, phones, computers, and other devices.

It's also highly recommended that you don't eat within an hour or two before going to sleep because this is the time your body slows down its metabolism to prepare for sleep.

In order to wake up on time, you can use many things, some as simple as alarms.

There are some alarm apps such as Alarmy which allow you to place a QR code somewhere in the house.

When the alarm rings, it can only be turned off when that QR code is scanned.

It's a great way to force your way out of bed if it gets to a point like this.

Harming your body

There are many ways in which you can harm your body.

The most common being things such as smoking, drinking, and eating junk food.

I don't think we need an explanation of how smoking harms your body.

Just taking a look at a pack of cigarettes tells a tragic tale.

Drinking can also cause many serious problems within our bodies.

Problems such as brain deficiencies, making it harder for the brain to communicate with your body, slowing you down, and making you less responsive/reactive.

Like smoking, drinking can also cause heart diseases, drastically decreasing your lifespan.

For an entrepreneur, the worst thing (other than all the diseases and cancers), would be the loss of focus from drinking.

Depending on how much you've had to drink, it can take a really long time to start regaining your optimal consciousness.

In many cases, however, our biggest problems may not be smoking or drinking, but eating junk food and fast foods.

We may do this for a number of reasons:

• It tastes good
• It tastes... good
• We stress eat to fill an emotional void
• 'To gain weight'

There have been studies that show how eating junk food has almost similar effects to drugs like heroin.

This may be why our cravings can't help but yearn for more Mcdonalds right after you've had some or a few days after.

Although you may not want to completely get rid of fast food from your life, it's normal to have a bit of a break here and there, you want to minimise it as much as possible.

This means limiting the amount of times you eat or order out per week to twice a week, once a week, once a month, and keep going as much as you can.

Watching too much TV/Netflix

Laying in bed watching Pokemon or other movies and shows used to be the best thing in the world.

During years 8, 9, and even 10, I would spend my whole day in bed and watching TV.

I had no guilt or shame.

Today, even an hour of laying in bed doing nothing will make me feel like I'm bearing the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Like social media, watching TV and Netflix is unhealthy and toxic too.

When the average episode is between 25 and 50 minutes, whilst the average movie is an hour and a half long, there is no other way to effectively waste more time.

What's worse is that TV channels and platforms like Netflix have spent 1000s of hours and millions of dollars on research for the sole purpose of keeping people watching longer.

Episode after episode will play without your intervention.

The 'just one more episode' carries on until you're at the 4th or even 5th episode of the day.

Movie after movie, the recommendations pile in.

It's hard to fight against it because it's such an automatic and simple process.

Setting a limit on how many movies you watch a week, or how many episodes a day can be a great way to get into the habit of spending less time on these activities.

There are also settings within your TV or Netflix app that allow you to set usage limits.

Spending long on social media

around 8 months ago or more, I was addicted to the internet.

I would be on PS4 all day, and when I wasn't, I'd scroll through Instagram nonstop.

I had already tried a few businesses by then - I had tried dropshipping which didn't work and following that, I also tried forex trading which was cut short.

I still did not understand the value of my time like how I do today.

As an entrepreneur, you must understand how valuable your time is.

Every minute spent doing something that doesn't benefit you, is a minute wasted.

Going by the mantra I've mentioned previously:

If it doesn't make me healthier or wealthier, stop it.

I stopped doing anything counterproductive.

A few days ago, I wrote an article where I mentioned my social media usage.

I claimed that my social media usage is probably less than an hour per day now.

Following the article, I wanted to check to see if my estimations were correct. 

It turned out that I was completely off - my social media usage was less than 15 minutes per day.

Compare this to someone who spends hours per day on social media, I am saving a minimum of 2 hours a day or 14 hours a week.

The negative effects of social media don't stop here.

It's unhealthy and toxic too.

Social media today is full of false expectations and realities that you must shield yourself from if you want to perform at your best.

Not getting enough exercise

Exercise doesn't always mean you need to go to the gym and do weight training.

Getting some exercise can be as simple as waking up in the morning and going on a walk.

You can set time aside every day to go on a run or if you have a pet, you can take them on a walk with a short sprint somewhere in that walk.

If you're new to exercise, you can easily start with simple walks.

From there, you can start to do other conventional exercises like sit-ups, crunches, pull-ups, push-ups.

The reason exercise is so important is because it stimulates your mind and body, getting you ready for the day.

Exercise has hundreds, maybe even thousands of benefits that I can't list here today.

Some of these benefits include:

• Sharper memory and thinking
• Better sleep
• Higher energy outputs
• It helps overcome moods and emotions like anxiety, stress, etc
• Better focus
• Increase alertness

By now you should start seeing the benefits that exercise can have on you.

Every week, I go to my local basketball court and spend almost the whole day there.

Although I'm missing out on a lot of work time, basketball is a great way for me to take my mind off of work, go out with friends, and have a bit of fun too.

When I'm not going to the basketball court, I also play for half an hour in my own garden.

See sports and exercise is not always boring and monotonous. 

It can be fun and enjoyable.

Whatever sport you like to do, try to do it at least once per week.

You will see a drastic change in your health, your mental state, and even your work.

Negative thinking

Thinking negative emotions can be the death of many entrepreneurs.

We often run into business like it's the answer to all our problems and realise we just walked into the mouth of a monster.

We get chewed up, spat out and the negativity starts to build up.

We're surrounded by social media's false expectations of success and so we question why we haven't been able to make anything work ourselves.

We start to do everything with paranoia, and the expectation to fail.

Whatever we do, we only have hope by our side for support and comfort.

We lose time and energy fighting these thoughts only to lose.

This is no way to live your life.

If your only plan is hope, you've failed already.

I've written a few articles on avoiding negative thoughts, overthinking, and stress in order to perform for success.

I've even written an article on getting crystal clear on your WHY so the idea of giving up is never an option for you.

In order to triumph against these plaguing thoughts, we must use parameters such as vision boards and affirmation to keep us going.

Constantly reminding ourselves what we've got waiting for us at the other end of the tunnel could be our only way out of it.

Overcoming negative thoughts and self-talk is a beast we learn to tame along the journey.

I've dedicated my whole blog to help entrepreneurs learn from my own mistakes, and talk about the lessons I've learnt along the way.

What have you learnt from this article?

Are you doing any of these habits currently?

Let me know in the comments below.

Till next time,

Mohamad