Selfcare: 7 things successful people wouldn't do

We often can't influence the external circumstances of our lives. What we definitely do have control over, however, is our focus and our habits—the latter in particular massively influence how we feel. Now, there are people who find this easier than others. However, there are some things such successful people do regularly—and some they prefer to stay away from.

These 7 things successful people avoid in their habits 1. Wasting energy on things they cannot control

We all have a limited amount of energy. How we use it has a huge impact on how things turn out for us. Anyone who is constantly stressing over things they simply can't change is clearly wasting their energy. Whether it's a canceled vacation or a job project that doesn't work out the way we imagined, there are some things we simply have to accept. Managing our energy leaves us with more energy for meaningful thoughts and projects.

2. Living in the past

Do you know that feeling? Instead of concentrating on the task at hand, your thoughts constantly wander to that stupid conversation you had with your girlfriend yesterday? It's not easy to always focus on the present moment, but successful people know that constantly dwelling on the past is absolutely pointless. Wandering into the future and imagining scenarios that will probably never happen usually doesn't help us either. Instead, we can try to learn from the past and keep the consequences of our actions in mind – but focus our energy on the here and now.

3. Missing an opportunity to learn

Failure is a part of life. How we deal with it is a matter of perspective. Of course, we shouldn't and don't need to sugarcoat anything – if we make a mistake, we're allowed to be upset about it. But once we've admitted that feeling, it helps to focus on what we can learn from this stupid situation. Maybe it's simply that we don't repeat the mistake. Or maybe it shows us something about ourselves that we didn't know before. Successful people try to learn something from every failure and thus don't miss any opportunity to learn.

4. Stay in your comfort zone

Nobody likes doing things they don't feel comfortable with. But to get ahead in life—whatever that means to us—we have to try new things. And these usually take place outside of our comfort zone. Those who only do what they know and are good at will probably never broaden their horizons. People who seem to succeed at everything have usually worked hard for it—including thinking outside the box.

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5. Losing track

Multitasking usually doesn't work as well as we think. We can only truly concentrate on one thing at a time. If you're constantly working on ten projects at once, you probably won't be truly satisfied with any of the results. Smart people know this and don't focus their energy on too many things at once. Setting the right priorities is an important skill—and essential for sustained success.

6. Losing sight of yourself

For all the self-optimization and pressure to perform, it's important that we take care of ourselves. Always being there for others and pleasing them, even when we're unhappy ourselves, won't bring us any closer to the finish line. We live in a society that has very high expectations of a wide variety of roles—that of wife, mother, boss, friend. This makes it all the more important that we don't focus our actions solely on fulfilling these roles. Because no matter how we define success, it should always have something to do with what we want for ourselves and what's good for us.

7. Comparing yourself with others

Dependence on the opinions of others has never gotten anyone anywhere. Constantly comparing yourself to others doesn't help either. That's anything but easy—especially in times of over-optimized Instagram filters and seemingly perfect influencers. But only we know what's truly good for us and how we want to live. Successful people have internalized that no one, absolutely no one, is perfect and that it's therefore absolutely pointless to compare your own appearance, your CV, or your family situation with those of others.

mbl Brigitte

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