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What Habits Are Holding You Back from Success?

Reflecting on your personal journey, what habit do you recognize as hindering your success or personal growth? Share insights into the habit you want to let go of and discuss strategies for breaking free from its grasp.


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Top comments (20)

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alxwnth profile image
Alex

The biggest one was lack of focus. These days there are so many shiny technologies, frameworks, and just overall things to learn that it's easy to get excited, drop whatever you were doing now and start pursuing a completely new things. And when you look back at your progress after countless jumps, the only thing you realize is that you've made no real progress on any of them.

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lexpeee profile image
Elex

I'd like to propose a new term for this one: Tech-hopping. :)

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alxwnth profile image
Alex

Sounds like a perfect companion for my crippling distro-hopping addiction!

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Inconsistency with exercise

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mrlinxed profile image
Mr. Linxed

Inconsistency is what's holding people back from a lot of their goals. Not just exercise

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jeffchavez_dev profile image
Jeff Chavez

This rings true!

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anmolbaranwal profile image
Anmol Baranwal

The better question would be:

What does success mean to you?

Then the habits (if it's good or bad) would tell more about the outcome that we want above everything else.

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hasitha_48 profile image
Hasitha

Procrastination.

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Totally relate!

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ingosteinke profile image
Ingo Steinke, web developer • Edited

Focusing on habits, as many coaches do, might be helpful, but it can also distract from other reasons that are actually holding people back from success, like biased hiring/investing ("culture fit" = the same white bearded dudes keep hiring the same white bearded dudes, venture capitalists seem to prefer certain people and buzzwords), gender pay gap, etc.

Putting the focus on individual behavior and habits can make people blame themselves when they're already giving their best.

Being one of those privileged bearded white dudes myself, I should rather ask myself: what habits are holding others back from the success that they deserve?

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mrmatt1010 profile image
Matt Taylor

For me it's that I sometimes start thinking that I am not good enough and never will be. I was a truck driver before coming back to IT due to illness and sometimes there is this voice that keeps pinging in the back of my head saying "nah you can't do this".

Most of the time I can ignore this but if I am tired or if one of my assessments is not going so well it comes back full force.

If anyone has any advice on how to kick this sort of thing I would be most grateful.

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ooglykraken profile image
Ian Ford

For me the only good way to combat this is to tell that voice "Yes, I can" everytime.

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jr01 profile image
Jr

Lack of Time management

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reprodev profile image
Repro Dev • Edited

Not being consistent, easily distracted and a bit disorganised are probably the things holding me back most as bad habits.

I'm trying to change that but of course, it's very easy to get distracted and fall down a rabbit hole when you're in the middle of a "breakthrough" or at least you think you are.

I find sectioning off time for deep work in the morning or evening can let you get a checklist of important tasks made or just checked off.

It makes it kind of gamified for me and helps me to have a more productive day or week overall.

Notion and ChatGPT helps. A lot.

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fullfull567 profile image
fullfull567

Procrastination often stems from an inner resistance, and in my case, the challenge is a lack of sufficient internal drive

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ingosteinke profile image
Ingo Steinke, web developer

I see procrastination as a symptom, not the problem itself. Many problems or "habits holding us back" do so for a valid reason, preventing us to rush into the wrong direction while ignoring something important.

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panditapan profile image
Pandita

doomscrolling 😭