10 Habits Of Unhappy People

Are you unhappy? In this article, I will be sharing the most damaging habits, which may be making you unhappy. I will also share what has helped me overcome these harmful habits and live a more positive lifestyle.

“Happiness is the art of never holding in your mind the memory of any unpleasant thing that has passed.”

“Don’t rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can’t love and respect yourself – no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are – completely; the good and the bad – and make changes as YOU see fit – not because you think someone else wants you to be different.” – Stacy Charter

Things that happen in our lives can make us unhappy. Often though, our unhappiness comes from our thoughts and thinking. Constant negative thoughts can become a habit and a part of our behavior, making us unhappy.

habit of unhappy people

When you are around someone unhappy, it isn’t easy to be around them. This person’s negative attitude will drag you down with them and perpetuate your unhappiness.

 HERE ARE HABITS THAT MAY CAUSE YOU TO BE UNHAPPY

1. Worrying About The Future

Spending much of your time thinking about the future imagining how things could go wrong in your relationships, workplace, and health can create negative thinking habits and self-doubt.

Products We Recommend:

If you are waiting for the future, you may tell yourself, “I’ll be happy when…” is a habit we easily fall into. For example, you may be waiting for that new relationship or more money. Spending your time waiting for something, which is proven not to affect how you feel, is continuing your unhappiness.

How you can overcome this habit:

It is essential to plan for your future, tomorrow, next year, getting older, and your retirement, but dwelling on things rarely helps.

Be in the present moment; focus on you and things happening right now, things that are making you happy. Being focused on the present moment will also help with your anxiety. See my post on Habits That Make Anxiety Worse.

It is almost impossible not to think about the future, but whatever I am doing, I try not to drift off and remain in the present moment. Whether it is working out, making dinner, or even going for a walk.

2. Being Stuck In The Past

All too often, we get stuck thinking about the past. Events or circumstances that have happened to us, good or bad.

Often the bad times seem to resonate within us, and we can choose to allow these dire times to haunt us or leave them where they are in the past.

You may regret decisions made in the past, but regret is useless. Research shows negative thoughts, mostly repetitive about decisions made in the past, often leads to depression and chronic stress.

How you can overcome this habit:

There are a few ways you can cope with the feeling of regret and stuck thinking about your past.

If nothing can be changed about the situation, let it go and move on.

Learn from your mistakes but don’t dwell on them and don’t blame yourself.

Look to turn the situation into a more positive one. Learn, move on, and grow.

3. Aiming For Perfection

People aren’t perfect. Life is not perfect. 

If you believe your life has to be perfect to be happy or behave in the ideal way to get perfect results, happiness will be difficult to find.

If you set the bar for yourself too high, it will usually lead to low self-esteem. You will always feel not good enough, even if you have great results.

How you can overcome this habit:

It’s good to aim for the stars and do your best, but striving for perfection may end up in a project that is never finished. Go for good enough instead.

Now good enough doesn’t give you an excuse to be lazy; it just means when you reach the end of what you are doing, you can look back and say “good enough” and be happy about what you accomplished.

4. Being Too Critical – Of Yourself And Others

When you compare your life to others, albeit money, houses, jobs, clothes, relationships, and social popularity, you become unhappy.

By comparing yourself to others, you bash your self-esteem and create many negative feelings.

The way you talk to yourself will correlate to how you feel about yourself.  

The negative self-talk will shape your self-image in a negative way and vice versa. If you think highly of yourself with positivity, you will have higher self-esteem.

Here is how you can beat this habit of unhappy people.

How you can defeat this habit:

Our self-worth is essential to our happiness, and you deserve to feel good about yourself. We all deserve that.

Don’t allow your thinking to turn into negative self-talk; instead, catch yourself, stop, and turn your thoughts more positive.

When you make mistakes, accept them, and then move on.

Other people are different, and you need to recognize they have the right to live happily as well, without criticism.

Be kind and learn not to judge or criticize other people. When you criticize others, you will judge and scrutinize yourself more.

When you are kind to other people, you will be more kind to yourself. Focus on the positivity of others and yourself, and you will begin to appreciate yourself more.

5. Complaining

Negative people tend to have a lot to complain about, even when people around them are happy.

Complaining is a self-reinforcing behavior because you are talking and thinking about how bad things are, and you begin to reaffirm your negative beliefs.

Additionally, complaining impacts the people around us. Remember the adage, “Misery love company.”

Complaining is a troubling behavior, along with the attitude that follows. We all have different circumstances throughout our lifetime, and owning how we act or react to what happened, is up to us.

How you can overcome this habit:

Life is not perfect, and embracing the reality that life never will be, opens up many possibilities.

Be mindful of your audience and how you speak. Don’t start a conversation with a complaint. Instead, compliment someone or something and spread some happiness and cheer.

Sometimes we complain to others to validate our worth to them. Don’t seek to impress someone through complaints; you won’t gain any friends.

6. Pessimism

Unhappy people see the world around them in a pessimistic sense. Be pessimistic or being negative towards everything fuels unhappiness.

A pessimistic attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, meaning if you always expect bad things to happen, it is more likely bad things will happen.

How you can overcome this habit:

Pessimistic thoughts or negative thoughts are hard to get rid of, and you have been making this habit for a long time.

One way to get rid of these thoughts is to recognize how illogical they are. Another way is to learn how to handle your negative thoughts positively.

When you learn to see the world with more positivity and look at the facts for what they are, you will begin to realize things are not as bad as they seem.

7. Being Around Negative People

Spending a lot of time around people who are frequently negative about life and what is happening can bring you down and lead to unhappiness.

It becomes increasingly harder to be positive and be happy if negative voices always drag you down.

Voices that are filled with fear, worry, and complaining see life from a negative perspective.

How to overcome this harmful habit:

It is not always easy to stay away from negative people, but try to distance yourself and not get sucked into their influence.

Listen to upbeat music, surround yourself with positive people, and read a positive affirmation post on a blog.

8. Sweeping Problems Under The Rug

When happy people make mistakes, they own up to them and are accountable for their actions.

Unhappy people try to sweep problems under the rug, hoping no one will notice. 

They find mistakes and problems to be intimidatory and are afraid to face them.

The problem with always hiding or ignoring their problems is, they tend to get bigger as time goes on.  

Always having these obstacles hanging over your head can bring you down, making you feel like the victim and unhappy.

How you can overcome this bad habit:

If you make a mistake, own up to it. Don’t try to hide your mistakes and “sweep them under the rug.”

Be accountable for who you are and what you do.

9. Poor Eating Habits

Eating poorly can affect your health negatively with depression, weight gain, and lack of energy.

Always ingesting processed foods filled with sugar may make you feel good right now, but as your body processes the food, you will have a sugar crash and feel down and sluggish.

How to overcome this bad habit:

Make a conscious effort to eat a well-balanced diet with more fruits and vegetables instead of cookies and other sugary substances.

When you eat better food, you will increase productivity and energy; you’ll boost your mental alertness and maintain a healthy weight.

10. Being Driven By Fear And Anxiety

I know many people suffering from anxiety and are crippled by their fear of life, and worry about what may happen to them.

Being afraid to go out, social anxiety, generalized anxiety can drain you and become a habit of unhappy people.

Anxiety is a mental health disorder that many don’t fully understand unless they have anxiety themselves.

How you can break this habit:

First and foremost, bring yourself back to the present moment. Concentrate on what you are doing in the here and now and not what may happen in the future.

Fear and anxiety are often on autopilot; it happens automatically from our negative thought processes.

Learn to turn these thoughts to be more positive. It’s not easy, and it takes time, and you will get there. Be patient.

Remember that you are not your negative thoughts, fear, or anxiety. You are far better and unique. You are an amazing person.  

Takeaway

Try to avoid these negative habits mentioned above. Follow the advice, and I hope you have gained some awareness of these lousy habits.

Believe in yourself, enjoy life, and be happy.

It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.

Dale Carnegie

Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things.

Walt Disney

Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.

Benjamin Franklin

Related Posts:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *