Early on in my career as an entrepreneur I quickly realized that habits had a huge impact on my results. And boy oh boy are there a lot of bad habits that sabotage results.
For some, it’s just not knowing any better. For others, self-sabotage habits keep you safe from facing your greatest fear about becoming successful.
I’d like to see you really become a huge success. You deserve it. And heck, I’m pretty sure that whatever you are passionate about is probably inspiring to a lot of other people.
Image for a minute what your life might be like when your habits actually produced more money, great impact, and more time doing what lights you up!
So let’s look at some of the bad habits that might be keeping you stuck where you don’t want to be (along with my suggestion for a better habit that can help you achieve your dream goals!)
Multi-Tasking
One of the biggest offenders of time freedom is multi-tasking. During my time in Corporate, I picked up this habit and I wore it as a badge of honor. If it could do 5 things at once, didn’t that mean I could accomplish more in less time?
I’m a huge fan of leverage but multi-tasking isn’t a productive habit. My friend Dave Crenshaw opened my eyes in his book, The Myth of Multi-Tasking, and I realized that doing many things at once actually slows you down!
New Habit: Try time blocking into 30 or 60 minute blocks and focus on completing – just one thing!
Winging It Without a Plan
Many of my highly creative and visionary entrepreneur clients practice the fine art of “winging it.” This bad habit creates two really big bottlenecks: one, you can’t delegate well if you don’t have a clear plan for others to follow; two, optimal results rarely occur when you don’t take action early enough.
I know, I know – you don’t have time to plan! That’s why every December I get a ton of Strategy Session requests from clients – because I’m really good at creating plans. Most entrepreneurs are so caught up in “doing” that they forget to take a step back and create an inspiring, exciting plan. I can help you with this.
New Habit: Commit to having a three-part plan to help you focus on your highest payoff opportunities: An offering plan (when you will sell what), a marketing plan (how you will share those offerings with your target clients), and a revenue plan (a clear picture of how your offerings and marketing efforts will translate to cash flow.)
Being a People-Pleaser
When you make a decision about your goals, do you factor how it will make others feel about you? Do you tend to hold yourself back from your dream because someone else in your life doesn’t approve? Listen, this is a bad habit that can actually make you depressed. I know that we sometimes have to compromise but it’s important that you recognize when you sell out your vision and dream because making others happy is your priority.
New Habit: Find the win-win-win in every decision. Don’t do things just because it’s what someone else wants. Find the outcome that makes you happy AND the important people in your life can live with.
Working Non-Stop
This is a horrible habit and it will lead to burn out. If you are working non-stop then you have one of two problems: either your offerings are not positioned well or you have a bad habit of not leveraging yourself properly.
Taking breaks is how you recharge your passion, your mind and your energy to keep going. When you are burned out from working around the clock, you won’t make good decisions. My friend Jim Palmer often shares the story of a coaching session we had where he was burned out, grumpy and losing sight of his dream business. I told him to take a day off. After coming up with 7 excuses why he couldn’t, he finally cleared his schedule and went to the baseball game. He returned a new man with an improved mindset! He loves my mindset coaching so much, he’s interviewed me several times for his podcast!
New Habit: Schedule in down time to recharge. Go for a hike, meditate, have lunch with a friend, spend quality time with your family. Do what refuels you so when you hit your desk you have a fresh perspective.
Letting Fear be your Decision Filter
Fear is a state of mind that provides an important clue: there is something about your belief, action or goal that is uncomfortable to you. As an entrepreneur, fear about money often become a filter that you make every decision from.
A bad habit is formed when you allow your fear of “not having enough” or “what if it doesn’t work” to dictate doing the right thing to grow your business.
New Habit: Train your mind to have a strong decision making process based on “what you need to do to achieve the goal. If your actions are aligned, then fear becomes a signal that you are stretching into a new, better version of you.
What’s a bad habit that you’ve shifted? Or is one of these habits a game-changer for you? Love to hear your input in the comments below….
Before you go, did you know that I teach entrepreneurs how to adopt the habits of a highly paid authority who is making good money working with their favorite clients?
It all happens in my Amplify Your Authority Inner Circle.
