9 Habits of Highly Unsuccessful People:

It is not possible to zoom though life as a human with out encountering one or some of these habits.

Moderately engaging in these habits is not likely to send your career spiraling...

But it is important to recognize bad habits and minimize them as much as possible.

 

Habits that threaten success: 

Not Listening: 

Not listening to the concerns and direction of other people is career suicide. No one is "so good" that they don't need "anyone else" to be successful. Have you ever heard a person mid- rant say: "I don't need anyone I only depend on me"? What an unfortunate mindset...

Unless you are you are the only consumer of your product you will always need other people.  

Not Listening is where so many people drop the ball and it is a terrible habit.

Proving you have listened is the easiest way to build trust and respect. 

Confirm what a person tells you by repeating what they said in an effort to make sure you heard them correctly.

It is the only way to acknowledge other people.

Acting, thinking and talking negatively:  

This includes using disclaimers when saying something negative like: “I don’t want to sound negative BUT…”  If you are saying something negative…you are saying something negative.  Using disclaimers does not make you sound less negative. 

"But" negates anything you said prior to saying "but".

Coming from a place of "no" is the most expedient way to stifle both your career and happiness. 

Reacting instead of responding:  

One of the most natural struggles we face while trying to communicate with others...

Feeling the urgency to react impacts our emotions.

Knee jerk reactions happen to fast for us to consider consequences.  

Snap "pause less" reactions are the very thing that cause emotional chain reactions.  Emotion piled on top of more emotion never solves a problem.

Not with out risking an escalation of the situation.  

It is not worth it.

It is also not complicated to change that habit.

Next time you want to react right then...

Wait.

For two minutes longer than you normally would.

Then 5... and so on.

Until you are in the habit of not reacting before you have a chance to think.

Blaming everything that goes wrong on everyone ELSE:

Cognitive dissonance is when the world around you keeps doing things that work against your current beliefs and thought process.

It is when you feel like the reason for a current conflict is because the other people in the situation do not understand what the reality of the situation is.

These people tend to be close-minded and unaware that the way they handle situations is not productive.
They often become isolated because other people find it difficult to get along with them.

Acting, thinking and talking negatively:  

This includes using disclaimers when saying something negative like: “I don’t want to sound negative BUT…”  If you are saying something negative…you are saying something negative.  Using disclaimers does not make you sound less negative.  

Thoughts become things.

A negative outlook will make everything more negative b

Reacting instead of responding:  

One of the most natural struggles we face while trying to communicate with others.  When we feel the urgency to react and it impacts our emotions we feel an knee jerk almost automatic need to react immediately.  Consequently, reacting is the very thing that causes an emotional chain reaction in another person.  Emotion piled on top of more emotion never solves a problem with out risking an escalation of the situation.  

Staying busy but never driving results:

This happens for a few reasons…

Because people are either afraid of doing the things that DO produce results, they are in the wrongs field, or they have not been provided information of what activities they should be prioritizing. 

It is usually the first reason which boils down to fear.

If you find that you are always busy but you are not producing results it is time to revamp the business plan and be honest about what you are doing with your time.

Giving up after a few tries:

Unsuccessful people give up easily. 

Most persuasion, selling and closings happens after multiple attempts. 

Trying only once, twice, or even three times is not enough.

Not for sustainable success.

You must puck yourself back up and keep going.

Cheating as a strategy for winning:

This is not only lazy and morally compromising but it is also nearly impossible to sustain long term.

If you spend all of your energy in becoming a better version of yourself the need to cheat will have less and less appeal. 

Talking (gossiping) about people instead of discussing ideas:

Gossip wastes time.

It falls into the category of busy work because it does nothing for the bottom line. 

Try and stay away from people who constantly gossip for the sake of gossiping.

There is a difference in talking about people so you can understand them and talking about people to make yourself feel better than them.

Keep mindful about the reason you are discussing other people.

Talking about others for the sake of everyone’s productivity=o.k.

Talking about others because you are angry or jealous is a different issue entirely.

Making assumptions based judgments rather than factually based judgments:

Assumptions are based on what we have experienced in the past filling in gaps for what we may be experiencing in the present. 

It is human nature to fill in the blanks but that doesn’t mean any assumption holds any factual basis.

Why guess when you can know?

Ask questions.

Engage in conversation.

Values based decisions are necessary, just make sure you have all the facts and you will be on the right path to make a well informed decision.