Thousands and thousands of people in the world wish to become successful professionals and, the first step towards getting there is taking a good, long look into your personal and professional habits.

However, there are some toxic habits that can get in the way of your personal work relations and, therefore, your chances of professional development.

Needless to say that, to become a successful entrepreneur, these habits will also need to disappear from your routine.

If you’re thinking about this, we’re here to help you. In today’s text, we’ll show you some habits which can be getting in the way of reaching the professional success you want.

What does it mean to be successful?

Have you ever thought about the true meaning of being successful?

Most people believe that being successful is the same as making a lot of people. However, it’s more and more common to see well-paid professionals who are unhappy with the job they’re performing.

For Millennials (born from the 1980’s on), professional success is more associated with having personal satisfaction than with financial gain. So much that many of them would rather work at a company with a social purpose than at a major corporation, even if it means making less money.

This audience is especially attracted by areas that encourage entrepreneurship, especially online. Therefore, currently, it’s more and more important to detach success from earnings.

There are several indicators that can show you’re in the right track on your career. Let’s see some of them:

Reach pre-established goals

Goals are a set of challenges that should be overcomed in favor reaching higher objectives.

Let’s say your objective is to buy a car. Setting quantifiable goals help you not lose focus, such as going out with friends only once a month, saving a percentage of your salary, etc.

One of the best indications of professional success is the accomplishment of these goals.

If you have a clear objective, you should not measure efforts to make it a reality. Of course, you should always act according to ethical principles without sacrificing your personal beliefs in exchange for a promotion at work.

There are many professionals who proved this is possible. Search for these stories to get inspired!

Work with what you like

As we said before, success is not always a synonym for money.

Working on something you like is the best way to be successful because this means you’re putting your well-being first.

On the other hand, working with what you don’t like may wear you off because you’re exposing yourself to high levels of stress every day.

But don’t worry if you have questions about your career. This is extremely natural from time to time. What’s unnatural is to leave your bed every day counting the days for the weekend.

If you’re asking yourself how to join work and pleasure, the best solution possible might be having your own business venture. By doing so, you dedicate yourself to something you like and you’re free to set your own hours. Which takes us to our next topic.

More time with your family

Another great way to identify if you’re being successful is when the professional finds a balance between their tasks and spending time with their family, friends, and loved ones.

Work should be only a means toward an end, which is not only professional success but also, personal one.

More free time to travel and for your personal projects

Besides having a job, it’s important having a hobby, a personal occupation that has nothing to do with your professional life.

Do you dream of taking a vacation in a different city, knowing different cultures? All these projects are important and you should go for them.

If you’re not able to enjoy these pleasures and your free time to fulfill your personal projects, you have yet to reach professional success because you’re giving up on living your own life due to your work.

Which toxic habits prevent professional success?

There are many bad habits that prevent people to reach success in their professional careers. Many times, complacency, a lack of energy, passion and even knowledge can lead to failure.

Knowing your toxic habits and how to get rid of them is essential to have professional growth. Change is from the inside out and the best moment to change is now.

Learn to identify the habits that are ruining your career.

1. Procrastination

To procrastinate is to postpone a task, a commitment, neglect a project or a goal.

In your professional life, procrastination is one of the most toxic habits you can have because it puts a hold on your development.

Procrastinators have an illusion of happiness but they end up regretting later on because they didn’t take the opportunities that appeared in their paths.

To get over procrastination, you need to have willpower and set your mind that, in order to be successful, you need to be proactive. And by proactive, we mean a person who is willing to help and is autonomous when it comes to proposing new projects and ideas.

The first step towards not procrastinating is making yourself busy even in your free time with productive activities. Instead of doing nothing, start learning a new language, read a book or do volunteer work and extracurricular activities that can open up how you see the world and how you see people.

2. Tasks piling up

Working a lot is not the same as working with quality. Building up tasks, a.k.a multitasking, can wear you down physically and psychologically, having a direct impact on your professional development.

A lack of focus and objectivity when working results in low productivity and below the average results.

More importantly than performing many tasks in an automated way, is focusing on one activity and worrying about its quality to bring meaningful results to the Company you work for or the business you run.

3. Incapacity to delegate tasks

To be a successful entrepreneur, it’s essential to count on business partners.

Many professionals make the mistake of delegating tasks to people who are not ready to perform that job. Thus they end up wasting time and money and get in exchange a poorly done work.

On the other side, the professional who absorbs many tasks can have their delivery compromised and have no time to accomplish what they had planned.

4. Not separating their professional from their personal lives

Another really toxic habit is not separating your personal life from your professional one and let it impact your performance and your relationship with your co-workers.

Everyone has bad days but this doesn’t mean you should let a personal problem have a negative influence on your work environment.

How to avoid toxic environments

To complete all your projects, you need to get rid, once and for all, of the habits we mentioned above from your routine.

Here are some tips you might find useful.

1. Be more focused

One of the first steps towards to become a successful entrepreneur is becoming more focused in your life.

Focusing on your objectives and goals is essential to reach positive results. With no effort, procrastination can take over your whole life.

Focusing means prioritizing some activities rather than others. So, choose a niche market and activity that truly inspires you and start working to be successful in this segment. You’ll work less, have more pleasure and produce more.

Keeping a spreadsheet or taking notes can help you in this process of viewing what’s really important. In the case of spreadsheets, you can use a color code for activities that can be left for later.

2. Keep on studying

The search for knowledge should always be present in the life of people who want to reach professional success.

The world is more and more complex and the market fastly changing, especially online. Being tuned for these changes is important not to miss opportunities.

Therefore, whenever possible, study and take courses to keep on improving your skills. (Take advantage to check our tips on free online courses you can take to become an expert).

3. Come up with a to-do list for your daily tasks

One of the most common mistakes professionals make is working only with long-term goals.

Performing daily tasks is essential to exercise your skills and keep yourself motivated. So, come up with to-do lists for your everyday tasks to make sure you didn’t forget to do something you had planned.

4. Take some time for yourself

Work isn’t everything. You’ll realize that eventually.

It’s important to put some time apart to fulfill your life’s projects such as traveling, enjoying friends and family, learning a new language, playing a musical instrument or any other activity that brings you joy.

This balance will help you be more willing to take on your work’s challenges whenever they come up, besides being a way to motivate yourself.

5. Organize your time

It’s worth having a work schedule distributing your time according to the tasks you need to perform.

Therefore, you’ll have more control over your professional activities, tracking your results and coming up with strategies to reach all your goals.

Learn to manage your time so you don’t miss out on good opportunities when they come knocking on your door.

6. Avoid distractions

We said before: Focusing is key to reaching professional success.

There are many distractions that keep us from growing professionally, such as the internet, electronic devices, games, friendships, and many others. You need to have a clear line separating work and pleasure.

Whenever you’re working, it’s good to put aside all the distractions and focusing on performing the tasks at hand.

Conclusion

If you read up to here, you noticed that, as important as making money, is knowing how to manage work, family and pleasure. You also saw that toxic habits manage their way into our routines but it’s always possible to get rid of them and achieve professional success and even personal success.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you may have understood by now that finding a balance between your personal and professional activities is key to get on top.

However, if you’re not an entrepreneur but also figured out that this might be the way to your professional success, you can rest assured that we’ll also help you out. Here, on the blog, we have a complete post with 30 trending business ideas to be your own boss. Be sure to check it out!