By Maksim Goncharenok
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     from Pexels

    We all have so much to do, and yet we often want to do more.

    But the truth is, we simply can't do everything. Sometimes, we have to say "no" to a lot of things so that we can say "yes" to what matters most.

    But this is hard work and can be a lonely road. This article will not only explain how to start saying "no" to your bad habits but will also show you many habits you can start to replace them with.

    But first, let's talk about why it's so hard to say no in the first place. You might think that saying no is easy, but the truth is that it's much harder than it sounds. To start, most of us love the idea of saying yes. We want to please people or keep consuming more content on social media, and saying yes makes us feel good at the moment. But saying yes is a one-way ticket to guaranteeing your failure.

    For most people, their day is consumed with so many obligations that they cannot focus on one task. From work to social media to shopping, there are so many things that we want to do that it's easy to feel like we're always running behind. But this is a bad way to live. If you want to get ahead and to be successful, you have to be able to focus and say no to the things that aren't worth it. When we say yes to everything, it spreads us thin, and we often feel like we have no time left for ourselves.

    If we could just cut out all of the small tasks and bad habits, how far could we go? Imagine starting your day with a clean slate where you only choose productive habits. This is possible through saying "no" to everything not productive. You not only have to say "no to the bad habits, but you also have to completely get rid of them. You have to hate the time-wasting habits with the bottom of your soul.

    For example, I used to be addicted to video games. I would wake up, do what was required of me, then I would play video games. I knew to be successful I couldn't play video games, but I didn't know what to do. One of the only things that worked for me was just getting rid of all of it. As cheesy as it is, I had to delete every trace of video games in my life and I had to cut ties with people I was only friends with to play video games with. If I had said "yes" to video games, I could've never had the opportunity to say "yes" to working out or spending time with friends and family.

    However, this is the part where the excuses come. If you do two things for an equal amount of time in the day and say one is more important than the other then you're lying to yourself and are addicted to a bad habit. If I say working out and getting fit is a priority but I slept in late, I actually didn't have it as high of a priority as it actually needed to be.

    Photo by Nick Demou: https://www.pexels.com/photo/several-scissors-1319460/

    If you want to be successful in any field, it takes a tremendous amount of work and commitment to perform that task for multiple hours per day. If you say "yes" to playing video games, going to a barbecue, and shopping at the mall, then you're not actually committed to what you think you were. Start saying "no."