07 Bad Habits You Can Drop Today to Become Ultra-Successful

To boost your success, below are seven bad habits that I suggest you drop to make your way to the top:

Thinking of failure as a bad thing

Thomas Edison once famously said, "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Nobody likes failure--that's why this habit is way too easy to acquire. But nobody's perfect when they're dipping their toes into something new. Quite simply, if you're always avoiding failure, you're stagnant.

Instead, when you redefine failure, you're learning what does and does not work throughout your career. The important thing is to make sure that you actually learn from your mistakes, rather than repeating them time and time again.

Saying "Yes" to everything

"What you don't do determines what you can do," productivity expert Tim Ferris once wisely said.

We often feel the need to give everyone a "yes" to feel that we are helping ourselves and others. But the truth is that overextending ourselves isn't doing anyone a favor. Instead, you should learn to delegate tasks and prioritize those pieces that are truthfully beneficial to you and your most important relationships.

To start, turn up your turn down skills: creating a polite, default response such as, "I'd love to help you out, but I 'm honestly too busy," will ensure that you maintain a semblance of a normal workload and prevent tasks from falling to the wayside.

Comparing yourself to others

The comparison trap can be a deadly spiral. Olympic Softball player Jennie Finch said it best when she mentioned, "Try not to get lost in comparing yourself to others. Discover your gifts and let them shine!"

Rather than constantly scrambling to keep up with the entrepreneurial Joneses, shift your perspective. Each one of us is walking through life with an incredibly unique set of gifts and skills. Comparing that to someone else's skill blueprint is a waste of time and drain on your success.

Believing in scarcity

A scarcity mindset is the belief that there's only so much success to go around. In this age of hyper-competitiveness, thinking that someone else's victory "steals" from your own success creeps on almost everyone.

Stephen Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said, "Instead, I have an abundance mentality: When people are genuinely happy at the successes of others, the pie gets larger."

People like Covey see an opportunity in everything, and they don't believe that someone else's success eats away at their own. Whether it's collaborating with others in the field, elevating your teammates, or just saying "why not?" you too can start adopting that same abundance mindset, this very second.

Not setting the right goals

Tony Robbins once said, "One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. "

Tony was on to something. Goal-setting is a great habit to have, but even I'm guilty of setting too many goals in a million different directions. Nowadays, my team discusses new goals together, and we determine if a goal should get tackled, shelved, or thrown out the window.

You should do something similar - if you don't set concrete goals towards your Genius Zone, then you are unable to channel your energy towards tasks that are leading towards success.

Being set in stone

Being determined and motivated is great. But don't fall into the trap of mistaking determination for an unwillingness to change.

Take Jeffery Hazlet, former CMO of Kodak, for instance. When he realized no amount of his sheer will would turn Kodak into the business he wanted, he shifted that determination elsewhere. Now he's a New York Times best-selling author, keynote speaker, and media mogul.

First business models or career plans rarely pan out, but successful people don't keep running towards defeat when that happens. Even if your plan fails, it can still have an impact. By modifying it, you can make it successful, even if it isn't what you originally intended.

Believing self-doubt

Even when all the signs are pointing towards success, insecurity can easily kill your dreams. In fact, it's so prevalent (especially with successful people), that it's a full-blown condition known as Impostor Syndrome.

To start breaking this nasty habit: Create a list of your skills, talents, and achievements. Read the list regularly and when you're plagued by self-doubt, remind yourself of all the reasons you're "good enough."

Remember, it's never too late (or too early) to make a positive change and see your success skyrocket.