While there are a lot of habits that will help to bring happiness into your life, there are also plenty of habits that will chase happiness away.

Some of the things we do each day make it very unlikely that we’ll experience happiness. You’re probably doing at least of couple of these things and never considered the negative impact that they could be having on your life.

Avoid these habits that can rob you of happiness:

1. Unnecessary spending. One of the greatest stressors in life is financial issues. Happiness is harder to find when you’re up to your eyeballs in debt. General financial pressure is one of the greatest causes of misery and divorce.

– Clutter is another barrier to happiness. When you spend too much, you have too much stuff. It’s always in the way and serves as a constant reminder that you spent more than you should have.

– Think about the reward you gain by spending and find a less destructive way to accomplish the same thing.

– If you want to make happiness a real possibility in your life, keep your spending under control.

2. Postponing your life. We’re always waiting for something to happen before taking action. Whether it’s waiting for the first of the month to start a diet, or waiting for the kids to leave the home before starting an online business, we always have an excuse to wait.

– There will never be a perfect time to take that big step. Manage your circumstances as well as possible and get started today. Time is the one thing none of us can ever get back.

3. Blaming others for your challenges. When you blame others, you lose control. It’s not easy to accept responsibility for all of the unpleasant things in your life, but what other choice do you have? No one else is going to fix it for you.

– Even if you’ve been used and abused, you are still responsible for dealing with the aftermath. Accept the challenge and move forward.

4. Not staying grounded in the present. Most people have a bad habit of dwelling on past mistakes and tragedies and worrying about the future. The past is over, so leave it there. Good choices today eliminate most future challenges. Focus on making the most of today, and the future will take care of itself.

– Pay attention to your thoughts for an entire day. Notice how much time you spend thinking about the past or the future. Think about how that impacts your effectiveness and your happiness.

5. Holding a grudge. If someone has wronged you, you might be making a good decision by not trusting that person again. However, holding on to the animosity is pointless. You just make yourself unhappy and less effective. Once it’s over, learn what you can from it and forge ahead.

6. Focusing on challenges instead of solutions. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you focus on the unpleasant things in your life. Rather than do that, spend your time, energy, and focus on finding a way to make things better. You’ll feel better and be much more successful.

It’s easier to be happy if you stop doing the things that prevent happiness. We all pick up some bad habits along the way. The important thing is to recognize them and eliminate them.

Allow yourself to be happy by letting go of your anti-happiness habits. You’ll find that happiness isn’t as challenging to achieve as you thought.

Many of us are well accustomed to the development of the glory muscles. Muscles like the chest, shoulders, quads and glutes will always get special attention in the gym – but how many people train their core correctly?

Yes, you see others doing simple exercises like leg raises and crunches to work their “abs,” but when we say core, we mean something different.

Think of the core as an entire muscular system that spans the entire surface of the stomach and back. The core is a system of muscles that starts at the hips and runs all the way up to the ribcage – supporting the body the entire way without fault.

With that said, many people have a very weak core which can lead to back pain, hip pain, and even pain in the upper back and neck.

Training your core is important for these main reasons:Your core is your stability. Whenever you’re doing an exercise where a load is placed on your back, shoulders, or overhead, your core is the main muscular system that is providing stability.

1. Think of it as the bridge between your upper and lower body. If the bridge is weak, the connection between the two (upper and lower body) will not be nearly as effective as it could be. Training your core is important for stability in your big overhead movements.
   • A weak core means a weak squat and a weak overhead press. If you’re a strength athlete, this is something you need to look for.
2. Your core helps you run. Since the core links the upper and lower body together, it will act as a synergist in nearly every step. A strong core means a strong and efficient runner.
• The core will also help to absorb shock. When you’re running, your body is impacted with about 40 x your bodyweight on each stride.
• If your goal is to run a long distance, you must have a strong core.
3. A strong core makes you look great. Last but not least, the core is important because a strong core looks great. Your core is very important to your overall wellbeing but training the core for strength and physique is also important.

Having a great core is more diet than training, but when both of these ideas meet in harmony, you’ll have a core that is built for strength and success in any setting.

Core Strength – A Crucial Element

Core strength is important for your balance, stability, body strength, weightlifting goals, and running goals. This core muscle system appeals in the aesthetics of training. Plus, it helps keep your back, neck, and hips pain-free.

This is one system that cannot go unnoticed in your training program.

For best results, be sure to try and hit your core for about 60 minutes of training each week. Dedicated ab sessions, rather than 5 minutes after each workout, also seem to show better strength returns.

The best time to pair core work is at the end of a leg training session. Pair your core training with all your leg workouts and watch as you grow stronger in the core and every aspect of fitness that comes with it.

Start training for core strength today. You’ll like the way you feel!

Self-esteem is essentially the quality of being pleased with yourself. The opposite of having high self-esteem is loathing yourself, which is obviously a challenging way to live. Learning how to be happy with yourself can benefit you in every other aspect of your life. You’ll be a lot happier in general, too.

Learn to love yourself and raise your self-esteem with these tips:

1. Volunteer. Demonstrate to yourself that you’re a good person by giving some of your spare time to a worthy cause. You’ll feel better about yourself than if you’d spent the same time watching a TV series marathon instead.

2. Do something each day that you’re good at. We feel competent and confident while doing something that we know we’re good at. Make a list of the things you know in your heart that you do well. Do at least one of them each day and notice how you feel.

3. Remind yourself of your successes daily. Spend a few minutes each day reviewing your successes. Include recent as well as successes from the past. You’ve done a lot of great things. Avoid forgetting about them.

4. Avoid comparing yourself to others. There’s always someone that does something better than you. Just remember that there are things you can do better than them, too.

5. Increase your knowledge or expertise. Constant improvement is a sure path to greater self-esteem. Keep improving yourself and your capabilities, and you’ll be more impressed with yourself. What do you want to become better at doing? What would you like to know more about?

6. Release yourself from your mistakes. Allow your mistakes from the past to fade away. You can do this by forgiving yourself and keeping your mind focused on what is happening in the present time.

– You don’t know anyone that has never failed or made a mistake. This includes your closest friends and family members. You don’t hold their mistakes against them, so how can you hold them against yourself?

7. Stick to your values. When you fail to live up to your values, you won’t feel very good about yourself. Understand your values and live them each day.

8. Face a fear. Having too many fears can lessen the level of self-esteem we experience. Overcome a fear and you’ll be amazed with yourself. Start with a small fear and work your way up.

9. Avoid doing things just to please others. Going too far to please or impress others demonstrates to you that your own preferences, values, and happiness come in second place. Be considerate of others but strive to make yourself happy.

10. Be able to say “no”. The inability to say “no” to others shows that you give too much preference to others and too little to yourself. Show yourself that you matter by being able to refuse the requests of others when appropriate. You’ll receive more respect from others, too.

11. Define what you believe a good person should be. You can’t be happy with yourself if you don’t have a target to strive for. Understand what it will take to feel a high level of self-esteem. Each day, you can choose to be the type of person you described.

Work on your self-esteem each day. It doesn’t sit at a constant level for most people. Good days, weeks, and months tends to raise it. Experiencing bad periods of time tends to reduce it.

A great start is to decide on your values and then use them as a guide as you make decisions throughout the day. This is the foundation of high, and lasting, self-esteem.

Every career has a set of habits that greatly increase the odds of success. The habits necessary for success will vary from career to career. Fortunately, there are many successful entrepreneurs that we can look to for guidance. It’s not surprising that many of them share the same habits.

There’s no reason why you can’t have the same habits as some of the most successful people in the world!

Increase your odds for success with these habits:

1. An incredible work ethic. It takes a lot of time and effort to grow a company. It’s necessary at first to be a jack-of-all-trades. Until you can grow enough to hire others to cover all the required skills your company needs to thrive, you’re going to have to carry a lot of weight.

2. Conscientiousness. When you own a business, it’s up to you to ensure that things are done properly and on time. The responsibilities are great. You don’t have the luxury of putting out sloppy work. It will always come back to haunt you.

3. Use time wisely. Time will always be a limited resource. How you use your time dictates how successful your company ultimately becomes. That means having the knowledge and experience to make wise decisions and the mental toughness to avoid distractions.

4. Have a plan each day. One of the keys to using your time successfully is to plan for each day ahead of time. Avoid going to bed without having a detailed idea of what you’re going to do the following day. When your feet hit the bedroom floor, you should already know what needs to be done for the day.

5. Wake up early. There are very few successful entrepreneurs that don’t get up very early. Some get up even before 4 a.m. How early you get up is up to you, but if you’re not beating the average person out of bed, you’re behind.

6. Set goals. It’s not enough to work hard and work smart. You also must know where you’re going. Goals help you make wise decisions. Know what you’re trying to accomplish today, this week, this month, this year, and 10 years from now.

7. Deal with stress effectively. Entrepreneurs have plenty of stress to deal with on a regular basis, so it’s important to learn how to manage it. Have a process for dealing with stress and anxiety. Learn to recognize what you can control and what you cannot.

8. Look ahead for obstacles. Avoid being blindsided by obstacles and setbacks. Be aware of your future. Look ahead for the challenges that you’re likely to face and have solutions in mind.

– Think of all the major challenges in your life and notice that there were plenty of warning signs for all of them. The same is true with your business. Avoid putting your head in the sand and hoping for the best. Deal with challenges now while they’re still manageable.

What are your current habits? Can you see why your current habits have either helped you or harmed you on your path to business success? Think about what you want to accomplish to be successful and build a set of habits that will support those activities.

The person with the best habits usually wins. How far will you go with your habits?