In a world where we are bombarded by headlines like “top 1,000 things you should start doing today”, here is one with only 6 things you should absolutely stop (tried and tested by yours truly):
- Stop thinking you know it all. We know a lot and we know that we know a lot, but we need to get into the habit of not only taking advice (we’re good at searching or asking for it, see: self-help), but actually listening to literally anyone else with remotely similar experience to ours. Whether it’s deciding on a career, buying a car, or wondering if you should start a family at this age, listen to and think about the advice of others with experience; it will broaden your perspective and definitely help you make more informed decision, even if you don’t end up taking their advice!
- Stop comparing yourself to anyone or anything else. If you don’t compare yourself with people or ridiculous beauty standards and don’t wish you had that thing that someone else is flaunting on the ‘gram – well done. This point isn’t for you. Carry on. But for the remaining 99% of us, we can’t help it! We may be confident in ourselves but still find this bad habit creeping back into our daily routine. Piece of advice? Catch yourself and just don’t do it. Hundreds of reasons why you shouldn’t compare yourself to others, but my favorite is: you’re wasting time NOT BEING YOU, NOT being your ultimate best self. So just don’t. The world needs one of YOU, not more of that influencer with perfect hair.
- Stop spending ALL your time on a device, just some of it. We’re not going to get into clichés right now, but you can’t deny that we mindlessly spend at least half of the day, every day, on one or multiple devices – listen, even if you want to deny or underplay it, your phone app/data usage and social media app stats don’t lie. I know this is how we learn, work, and entertain ourselves, but there are tons of benefits of switching off more with lots of tools (even apps, ironically) that will help you do it!
- Stop rushing – through your day or your life. Scrolling through our phones, double-tapping, AND texting at the speed of light WHILE making plans and fitting them in between our crazy schedule of yesterday and today and the remaining 100 days of the year… STOP. RUSHING. Take things easy! Sip your coffee, breathe easy, and don’t look at life as a race. We’re all getting to the place we’re meant to be; slow or fast. And rushing, my millennial friends, is another stress trigger that we could definitely do without.
- Stop spending money on millennial things. Ok, time for some serious talk. Do you really need that BD 3.5 Avo on Toast for breakfast EVERY weekend? I’ll safely bet on NO. Just like how you can live without all those online subscriptions, buying coffee every single day, the latest trendy sneakers, whatever that influencer said changed their life #ad, things that could maybe organize your life, and a waist-cinching belt inspired by yellow tape from a construction site (see: THIS IS A BELT) too. Yes, it’s just a few ten or hundred BDs a month, but they’re definitely adding up to a bigger amount that could have been your long-term savings for actual life stuff.
- Stop thinking about what you should stop doing, start-stop doing them. We’re huge on self-help books, podcasts, reading listicles like this one, and binge-watching YouTube videos on how someone became a more productive person in 1 week (guilty!). I think it’s time to start putting everything we now know to test and figure out what really works for us and what absolutely doesn’t. This listicle ends here for that very reason.
