In any aspect of your life – your career, fitness, relationships, finances – success really boils down to two things:

1. Doing the right things.
2. Not doing the wrong things.

While we’ve written extensively about doing the “right” things to become more successful (like this post on instilling healthy habits), that success won’t materialize if you can’t let go of certain behaviors and mindsets.

So today, we’re taking a different tack. Below, you’ll find five things you need to knock off if you want to thrive personally and professionally:

Quit Doing These Five Things

 Expecting Perfection

Nobody is perfect; striving for perfection just sets you up for failure. Better options? Strive for continual improvement. Strive for excellence. Strive to be the absolute best you can be at doing something.

Procrastinating

Being amazing at something typically requires changing habits and putting in tons of work. Both are hard – and tempting to put off. But adopting an “I’ll get to it tomorrow” mentality will get you nowhere, because “tomorrow” never comes. Procrastinating is just avoidance behavior. If you want to be successful at something, you must put yourself in uncomfortable situations, do things you probably don’t want to do, and face your fears.

Micromanaging Others

You can’t do everything yourself – and you shouldn’t try to, if you’re in management. Delegating responsibilities and empowering your team are essential to accomplishing goals. Loosen the reins a bit. Selectively hand-off non-essential tasks to gain more time for high-priority activities that will make you more successful.

Automatically Saying “Yes”

Obviously, there are demands on your time and attention. True, you may have to make yourself available during off-work hours. Yes, employees, coworkers and managers will try to heap work on your plate. But these pressures are the very reason you must selectively say “no”:

• Set limits on how and when others may contact you outside work.
• Be honest with yourself and others about the amount of work you can effectively accomplish in a given timeframe.

Remember that, when you say “yes” to one thing, you’re saying “no” to another. Be sure you keep enough time and energy free to devote to the most important things in your life.

Fighting Fires

Without a clear plan, you’re likely to spend your time reacting to whatever problems others lay at your feet. While a certain amount of fire-fighting may be part of your job, plan your day with intention and focus. Create a prioritized list of specific tasks you need to accomplish. Start with the tasks that are the toughest (but essential to accomplish), and work down to things that would be nice to get done, but aren’t a true priority.

Want to be More Successful? Exact Staff Can Help.

Our national employment agency provides innovative staffing and placement solutions to increase focus. Free-up time for high-priority work. And support your individual and organizational success. What can Exact Staff do for you?