Month: July 2019

Is Self-Discipline Always a Good Thing?

It doesn’t really matter what you’re talking about, there is always a way to have too much of something. That includes having too much self-discipline. There is a time when that control is not even self-discipline anymore but has become self-abuse. If you’ve gone too far, you may end up having some characteristics about your personality that aren’t beneficial. Let’s look closer into some signs that things may have gone too far.

You Can’t Make Decisions

You’re overly cautious when you try to make choices. You can’t choose what to eat for dinner, you can’t pick which movie to go to, and you can’t figure out what to do with your life. You’re scared of making the wrong decision, so you tend not to make any. Thus, you make no progress in life.

You Have Become a Perfectionist

Some people think the word “perfectionist” makes them sound smart and important. However, the truth is a person who has become a perfectionist is usually not full of self-confidence. Their perfectionism is really an excuse never to do anything or finish anything due to fear of success or failure.

You Are Too Focused on Rules and Regulations

Following the law is good and it’s great to care about rules and regulations. However, you can take this too far if you cannot play a game or do anything without pointing out the rules everyone else is breaking before you can have any fun. Plus, if you nitpick every little thing, you will never get anything done.

You Can’t Take Breaks

While sticking to a schedule is a good thing – especially if you are a manager, a business owner, or a parent, you can take that too far. It’s imperative to set up your day so that you have time for breaks and set up your schedule and task list with breaks in mind. A person who is all work and no play will not end up being successful long term without burning out.

You Feel Lonely

If you’re not taking breaks and you cannot make decisions, you may start to feel lonely and out of touch with others – even if they’re there with you. You feel detached from others because you must be regimented in everything you do.

Has your quest to have more self-discipline crossed over to become a serious problem of being too controlled to the point that you cannot be yourself, feel stressed out all the time, and cannot make decisions due to being so risk-averse? If this happens, it’s time to get back to normal self-discipline. The point is to learn to retrain yourself now so that you can meet long-term goals in work and in life – not to end up miserable.

The Impact of Bad Habits on Your Family

Your bad habits can adversely affect you and your entire family. This is especially true when you have kids. Kids learn most of their bad habits from their parents. If you’re a parent or you influence kids, you may want to do all you can to eliminate your bad habits by replacing them with good habits.

Poor Methods for Handling Stressful Events

How you respond to stress in your life is usually a habit by the time you’re an adult. If you were not taught good ways of dealing with stress during childhood, you probably repeat whatever you learned from the adults around you. If you know you deal with stress poorly, study good ways to deal with it so you don’t pass it on to your kids.

Spending Money Impulsively

If you observed your father or mother spending money on unneeded purchases on impulse, it’s more than likely you do it too unless you’ve realized it and stopped it. You can cause a lot of financial issues just by spending money without thought.

Bad Ideas about Money

Adding to the above, bad ideas about money in general can be passed on to the kids. If you fear money due to not having enough, or fear not having enough, you may make some very bad choices that will negatively impact you and your family.

Worrying Obsessively

Demonstrating constant worrying about things you cannot change will also rub off on kids. They see their parent, the person they most trust in the world to keep them safe, being worried about everything. It makes them feel unsure and sometimes act out badly. If you want to stop worrying, you may have to get professional help – especially if it also comes with inherited anxiety.

Being a Picky Eater

Some picky eaters have a reason they are the way they are, such as being on the autistic spectrum and having texture issues, but others are only that way due to copying their parents. If you are a picky eater, you can be picky without demonstrating it to the kids. Plus, don’t force your family to do without meals they love due to your problem.

Not Expressing Yourself

You teach people how to treat you and if you never express your thoughts, ideas, and feelings about any situation, no one will know how you feel. Then you may feel as if you’re being mistreated and act out on that too, causing a rift in relationships.

Poor Communication Skills

Part of not expressing yourself may have to do with poor communication skills. Some people get very nervous talking to people (even their family) about any issues they’re having. So, they keep it to themselves. This is not a good idea. Instead, learn to be open and positive with your family.

Inability to Maintain Good Relationships

If you cannot communicate, you’re over-worrying, and you don’t like confrontation, it can be hard to maintain good relationships with your family. Building and maintaining good relationships can be learned by example. When you show your kids that you’re spending time with your best friend alone at lunch once a month, they learn something from that.

Not Saying “I’m Sorry”

You’ve heard people joke about not being able to say they’re sorry, but this is not a good quality for someone to have. If you are one of those people, learn how to do it now. It’s easy. Just state what you did wrong and then say, “I am very sorry.” No, if’s and’s or but’s.

Eating a Poor Diet

Definitely, diet is passed on to kids. Think about how children from all over the world eat interesting food based on what their parents eat. This proves that taste is a matter of what you are used to. If your parents demonstrated and fed you a bad diet, unless you work toward change you’re going to do the same with your kids.

There is no doubt that each of these bad habits negatively impacts your family. What’s worse is that you are at risk of passing these types of bad habits on to your kids. Even spouses can catch bad habits from each other.