In my last two postings for the month of January for 2015, I wanted to focus on something that I have personally struggled with for a number of years: "little"vices. Those things in our lives that we know we shouldn't do, but because we have made it such a bad habit over the years, and we consider them small as compared to the other vices, it is somewhat difficult to stop. Since we're not victim to some of the larger vices in life - doing drugs, breaking the law, or cheating others - we feel that these small things are not that big of a deal. It's that double cheeseburger that we get for lunch two or three times or week, that over indulgence in alcoholic beverages that we tend to partake in on the weekends (and sometimes during the week), or that tendency to "veg-out" in front of the couch and watch mindless hours of "The Real Housewives of Wherever" when we get home from work. There are just those things in our lives that we internally KNOW we should not do, but we consistently somehow justify it because we feel like we've "earned" it to some degree with the difficulty of our work day/week. We somehow convince ourselves that it's not THAT bad, even though we do also admit to ourselves that it's not that good either. In this two part series, I'll first share with you the reasons that you should definitely remove these "little" vices from your life if you want to maximize the success you can experience and not put yourself it at risk of serious demise later. The reasons are simple:
I.Your life will be so much better without them
While this is something that seems clear, it is not a truth that most people would accept. We've heard the statement "moderation in all things," and some people take this literally by allowing negative things to creep into their lives and feel it is okay because it's in "moderation." Many people attribute the statement of "moderation in all things" to Aristotle, but the problem is that Aristotle gives no exact guidelines to what moderation exactly is. Therefore, someone's estimation that moderation for them is once a month could be once a week to someone else or once a day to another person. The key is to identify those things that you consistently say to yourself you shouldn't be doing. You know what they are. Whether it's feeling sick after eating a large fat laden burger with fries, waking up at 1pm the following day from a night of drinking with a tremendous hangover or wasting two hours "spaced out" in front of your TV watching your favorite show, you know what's holding you back from achieving the life goals that you have in place. And while you think that if you take these things from your life, then you will be a "fuddy-duddy" or eventually go crazy because you don't ever "let off some steam," the reality of this is that this just isn't true. This is what you have convinced yourself to allow you to continually do those things which you know are not helping you achieve your goals in any way. You have to fight against this natural rationalization of the mind to continue to do those things that increase the dosage of dopamine to your brain to "make you feel good" (in my best Halle Berry impression from Monster's Ball). You have to believe that if you are able to give up, or at least greatly reduce, your indulgence in some of these things, you will be amazed at how much more momentum this will create in your life to achieve your other goals.
II. They ARE holding you back
While we often think the these little vices aren't truly impeding our rise to success, the truth is that this is just not the case. Often in life, everything that we do falls into two categories: they either help or hinder us from reaching our goals in life. When we have these little vices that are time-stealers, money-wasters, or motivation-killers in our lives, there is no way that these things are not detracting from what our ultimate goals of success are. We have to be honest with ourselves and identify those things that we consistently do that we know take away from our resources to focus on our lifetime goals and then we must do away with those things. It can be something as simple as hitting the club every weekend to hang out with your boys/girls. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you're spending exorbitant amounts of money (I'm definitely guilty of this) each weekend while doing so, you have to begin looking at how this affects your ability to fully fund your retirement or entrepreneurial fund for the future. If you are serious about securing your financial future, at some point, you have to make the decision of which one is more important to you in the long run.
III. It can eventually lead to your demise
The scariest thing about "little" vices that many people have in their lives is that they don't always remain small. When we have a habit that has been in our lives for some time, it has the tendency to grow and grow until it is harder and harder to control. You may not think your over-indulgence in alcohol two or three times per week is that big of deal, but if you continue this pattern over 15-20 years, you'll be surprised at how much more often this will become with time. You could go from 2-3 times per week to 4-5 to eventually every day, which will accelerate the damage you are doing to your body, which could eventually lead to some liver disease or other bodily function malfunction. You can also look at the analogy of those individuals who lived lives of grandeur and magnificence to only have it come crashing down on them as their "little" vices took over. You could look at Oscar Pistorius' 'small" anger issues that were hinted at years before the fatal incident with his girlfriend that may have been prevented had he worked to get these under control earlier. You can look at the fall of Tiger Woods who infidelity issues toppled him from one of the most admired men in the world to someone who became the butt of jokes at everyone's kitchen table. I'm sure neither of them thought there issues were "that" big at the time in relation to their perspective, but had either of them took their issues seriously and worked to improve them, they may have been able to prevent the tragedies that changed both of their lives forever.
Nobody is perfect. We all have those things that we do from time to time that we know we shouldn't. The key, however, to overcoming these things is not to convince yourself that they are "not that big of a deal" and continue to partake in them, but to create a plan and strategy that will help you consistently work to do away with these things in your life, so you can achieve everything of which you are capable. They say the greatest trick the devil every pulled on the world is to convince them that he didn't exist. You have to admit your devils do exist first before you can do anything about them, and next week, I'll give you the tips how. In the meantime and in between time (I always loved that saying), be honest with yourself and get to admitting...
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech (Graduate in May! - Whoop Whoop!). You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN
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