SEVEN DUMB THINGS YOU NEED TO STOP DOING

​1. Stop putting yourself down.
 
Have you ever said any of these dumb things?
 
“I’m such an idiot.”
“Why do I do such stupid things?”
“Okay, dumb dumb. Get it right for once.”
Or looked at yourself in the mirror and thought or said, “I’m so ugly.”?
Or, I’m so fat and ugly? I’m disgusting!
 
We say things to ourselves and about ourselves that we wouldn’t dream of saying to someone else, yet we wonder why we don’t feel good about ourselves.
 
Please stop doing that! Next time you think of calling yourself a derogatory name, stop. Think about what you are about to say. Instead of calling yourself an idiot again, why not say, “I made a mistake. I can fix this.” Or, “I guess I was wrong. No big deal.”
 
You have to be kind to yourself, and one place to start is to stop saying nasty things about yourself and to yourself.

​2. Stop rehearsing the worst.
 
Are you a catastrophe thinker? Do you leap to the worst-case scenario, whether it could happen, or could have happened?
 
Let me give you an example. Another driver startles you by cutting too closely in front of your car. Nothing actually went wrong and you both drove on down the highway. But all you can think about is what could have gone wrong. There could have been a bad accident; you might have been killed; as a result your children would have been orphaned.
 
What about this:  There is rain in the forecast - a lot of it. Does your mind immediately leap to the possible disasters that could occur? What if there is a flood? What if the road washes out and you’re cut off?
 
Just stop it! Stop rehearsing the worst. Not only do people worry about what could go wrong, but often also worry about what could have gone wrong long after the incident happened - when nothing went wrong.
 
Expecting and rehearsing tragedy is almost as stressful has experiencing tragedy.
 
So how do you stop? Control your thoughts. When a worrisome thought pops into your head, change it to something positive.
 
If you think about what could go wrong, stop and make a list of what is going right. If it’s after the fact, just say, “but it didn’t happen that way.”
 
And stop listening to the news all the time, and believing the media. Their job is to get your eyes and ears on them and catastrophe is a big seller. Don’t fall for it.

​3. Stop not forgiving yourself and others
 
Every one of us has been hurt by someone else, at some time, whether accidentally or intentionally. We’ve also all done things we regret and wish we had never done.
 
But carrying around the hurt, disappointment, pain, regret, resentment, or bitterness long after the event occurred isn’t smart. It especially isn’t kind to ourselves.
 
Look at it this way: When something hurtful happens to you it’s like a sin against you. If you don’t forgive that sin, you will continue to carry it around in your body and soul where it acts like a corrosive agent, damaging you a little every day.
 
Forgiving someone else does not excuse the wrong. It simply frees you from carrying their wrongdoing around with you. When you acknowledge that you believe they deserve to be punished, but leave that job in God’s hands, you free yourself.
 
The same applies to forgiving yourself. When you refuse to let yourself off the hook for a wrong you acknowledge, you continue to punish yourself long after the event is over.
 
When you become a person who is quick to forgive, you’ll be amazed at how much peace you have in your life. So it’s time to stop not being a forgiving person. You will instantly make your life better.

​4. Stop rehashing the past.
 
Meditating on your failures and misfortunes is like eating your least favourite food every day. For me that would be a steady diet of turnips and watermelon. Blech! Why would anyone do that to himself or herself?
 
Life can be tough and we will all suffer. Jesus said in the life we would have trouble. It’s just a fact. But rehashing it year after year steals your present and keeps you in that place of suffering all over again.
 
The apostle Paul had all kinds of troubles in his travels but even after shipwrecks, imprisonment, and beatings, he advised forgetting the past and pressing forward in his calling. It’s good advice.
 
I made what I didn’t know would turn out to be a big mistake several years ago. Even as I realized my mistake, it continued to get worse and I couldn’t extricate myself from the situation without loss. Even after it was over, the fallout left me in a very difficult situation for several more years.
 
You can believe I’ve rehashed that calamitous mistake to death! Not only did I suffer as I went through everything, but I made myself suffer long after by going over and over where I had gone wrong. It affected nearly every area of my life, including my health. That’s how I learned how fruitless it is to rehash the past. So stop doing that and look forward instead.

​5. Stop ignoring your health
 
You only get one body on this trip through life. How you treat it will have a definite impact on how much you can do, and how much you enjoy the trip.
 
Here’s my suggestion:  Stop doing things that harm or deplete your body.
 
For example:
Stop smoking
Stop over drinking
Stop eating too much
Stop eating junk
Stop staying up too late
Stop taking drugs
Stop getting too little sleep
Stop getting too little exercise
Stop ignoring pain
Stop working too hard
Stop pushing your body beyond its limits
Stop thinking you’re invincible
 
Instead:
Be kind to yourself.
Get enough sleep
Eat good, healthy food
Eat in moderation
Do things you enjoy
Take a walk
Love others
Love yourself, and your body and it will carry you for a long time.

6. Stop blaming
 
Do you take responsibility for your own life, or do you point the finger of blame at someone or something else?
 
It’s so much easier to blame circumstances or other people for our situations or failures, but frankly, that just keeps you stuck there.
 
Taking responsibility for your own life is a grown up thing to do. So you have to get over the habit of blaming as an excuse for your own actions. It prevents you from moving forward with your life.
 
We can blame:
 
Parents
Family
Friends
The weather
The economy
The government
The neighbours
Our health
Our upbringing
 
And a host of other things. It’s time to stop shifting the blame for what isn’t working and take initiative yourself. Stop making excuses.

​7. Stop being afraid
 
I have talked to so many people who want to do something yet are afraid to try. We’re afraid to fail, afraid to succeed, afraid of what people will think about us, and afraid of looking stupid.
 
Let’s look at these major fears.
 
Are you afraid to fail? I have been too. Then I did fail, quite spectacularly. And guess what, it didn’t kill me. What it did, besides teaching me a lot of things that I now use to do better, is it taught me that it’s the feelings of being a failure that are the scariest.
 
So, let me ask you this: If you’re afraid of failing, how do you think you’ll feel about yourself if you do fail?
 
Is the prospect of experiencing those feelings about yourself where the real fear lies? If so, remember, you get to decide how you feel. Before you attempt that new thing, decide that if it doesn’t work out, you will still feel fine.

Besides, what if you succeed?
 
Which leads us to the next one: Are you afraid of success? What is really behind that fear? Will your life change too dramatically? Are you afraid of how your loved ones will react to your success? Keep digging until you find the real kernel of the fear then work on a solution.
 
Afraid of what others will think? Just remember that most people are spending so much time thinking about themselves that they rarely think about you or me. What people think is their own business, and has nothing to do with you.
 
Other people in your life might be more comfortable if you don’t change, but it’s not your job to make everyone comfortable. Stop being afraid of what others think.
 
Lots of us are frozen in our tracks for fear of looking stupid. This is another manifestation of fear of what others will think but it shows up a lot in public situations.
 
Years ago, when I started my first business, I knew I had a lot to learn. One day I made the decision that I would rather look stupid once than be stupid forever. That simple decision gave me the courage to ask questions from people I didn’t know so I could learn what I needed to succeed.
 
If you stop doing any or all of these dumb things, you’ll make life better and probably be a lot happier too.