Why Quitting Your Addictions Will Kill Your Business
WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE! If you like what you are reading and would like to hire me to help you with your business' marketing, please feel free to contact me.
Whoever said that being addicted to something does more harm than good was full of it! Granted, there might be some instances where it’s a bad thing to keep a nasty addiction, but in most cases, if you’re productive with your business and there’s something that everyone is telling you that you should quit doing, odds are that will be a bigger setback to your business than actually being addicted.
I am hopelessly addicted to sweets, soda, sugar and junk food. I am not an overweight guy, but I love to eat sweets and drink soda. On average, I drink 7 two-liter Mountain Dew’s a week, eat a box of Oreo cookies, bake sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies (well, my girlfriend does that for me), and go through a few bags of flaming hot cheetos. Sounds bad don’t it? Yeah, technically, it might be bad for my health in the long run if I don’t take care of myself in other ways, but not having these things in my daily diet would wreck everything for me.
Recently, I stopped eating sweets and junk food; cold turkey. I had no soda, no caffeine; nothing. A few things happened to me when I did this, and none of them were for the better like everyone kept telling me. I want to break these things down for you, explain why they are bad for business, and give you some possible solutions to keep the habit, but even it out with the rest of your life.
Lower energy equals lower motivation
When you’re addicted to something, regardless of what it is (sweets, coffee, energy drinks, pizza, ect), if you stop having that as a part of your life, your energy levels will drop drastically. I know that the first couple days that I stopped eating sweets and drinking pop, I slept about 10-12 hours those days instead of my normal 3-5!
When you lack the energy, you lack the motivation to do anything. Small amounts of motivation might occur, and you might sit down to write up your next business plan, cold-call potential clients or design your next website, but that same motivation will leave you quickly, and you’ll be left in front of your desk either angry or depressed and ready to stop.
Lower motivation equals lower quality work
If you’re not motivated to do something, you’ll immediately give yourself reasons to put it off until later. If you’re business runs by you interacting with clients, shipping out orders, or giving services to people, you cannot begin to imagine how much this will effect your work. Lower quality work oftentimes will be seen by new prospects of your business as laziness and they will perceive your company as lackluster and unworthy of their time. This is not the immediate reaction you want from potential clients.
Lower quality work equals lower profits
Besides the fact that you’ll be undoubtedly doing less work and at a lower quality, the fact that referrals to your business will be less is another way your profits will decrease. If you’re working with a client and you end up taking 2-3 times longer to finish their work, or their product isn’t delivered when it was supposed to, they will NEVER respond with referrals to their friends and family members. This will cause a huge decrease in money, especially if you do not have a sales team working for you constantly.
Why quitting your addiction sucks
Besides all of the things I listed above, I noticed that the day I begin drinking soda and eating candy again, I was immediately in front of the computer and pulled a 19 hour shift through the night and part of the next day. I then pulled another 10 hour night right afterwards and felt great the whole time. I couldn’t understand why it happened like that at first, but then it hit me: I was happy!
When you’re happy, you tend to want to do more things with your day. For example, look at someone who’s suffering with depression; the odds of them really pulling them most out of their day is very low. Now, look at someone who works as a comedian and spends their days happy and cracking jokes; they are out in the open, doing what they love and feeling great about it. I know when I’m happy, I want to work or do something worthwhile, and when I feel like crap, I tend to sit and watch television or sleep more.
So, the next time someone tells you that you should quit your “nasty habits” because it’s affecting your life, take a look at what you’re doing and if it isn’t killing you at an alarming rate, I’d suggest second-guessing the idea of quitting. You’re business might regret it.
Bummer Han
December 13th, 2007 at 12:25 amDo not quit coffee and those tenets of your very fabric of existence.
After all, bootstrappers should feel free and from that freedom, creativity.
But not lapse into indulgence, one common habit is to find “sinks” for time now that you’ve given up your desk job. indulge only in stuff that contribute to your business, hobbies that widen your social circles…
not watching TV
Mike Smith
December 13th, 2007 at 12:27 amHi Bummer Han,
Thanks for the comment. 100% accurate.
I’m glad you liked this article. Let me know if you think we should write on any other specific topics or if theres something you’d like to see here.
Mike
Andrew
December 25th, 2007 at 2:08 amOf /course/ addictions make you happy, at least in the short term. What happens when you continue these habits for a year, three years, then ten? You’ll very likely face some adverse effects accumulated from unhealthy balance in your life.
What’s your health (or any long-term intangible) worth to you? Don’t sacrifice them for the short-term “feel-good” things in life.
Sean Hodge
December 28th, 2007 at 10:32 amI have the same issues with drinking soda (My Addiciton is Coca Cola). I also love coffee, donuts, I really love chocolate, or baked goods with chocolate in them, almost any kind of candy, you mentioned cheetos “yummy”. You get the picture.
I still go on binges and I let that happen and don’t worry about it. But overall I’ve found that you can cut back on these things and not have any adverse consequeses. Cold turkey is not a good idea. As food though with a little salt it tastes great. We had roasted pork recently. That was good cold. Pizza is even better cold. And for breakfast with a hot cup of coffee.
I’ve found that my biggest productivity killer is not getting enough sleep.
I think the idea of addiction could be applied to work. I get so addicted to my work, making logos or websites, that I don’t sleep well, etc. Sometimes its a good thing and sometimes I end up unproductive after a few days of not sleeping enough.
Thanks for the article. Also, when you get a chance consider switching your body text to a sans-serif font (Myriad, Helvetica, Arial) or something similar. It would help with reading your posts.
BillinDetroit
April 1st, 2008 at 11:53 pmI’m a recovered addict (alcohol, etc.) and what you were describing are withdrawal symptoms.
As a long-time member of AA, you didn’t say anything I haven’t heard dozens of times ‘around the tables’. You ended up rationalizing and justifying an unhealthy lifestyle in order to avoid an entirely temporary discomfort.
You use essentially the same baloney lines I use on myself to avoid actually exercising. I walked at a moderate pace for about an hour last week and didn’t realize that I was out of breath until I tried to speak to someone.
I’ll need better rationalizing now, because the old malarkey won’t work any more. Or maybe it’s time for me to actually put aside some time each week to get away from this keyboard?
Rather than shunning the perfectly good advice that you were given by the people who actually care about you and have a noodle between their ears, you might want to re-examine it for the many grains of truth it held.
BTW … I’ve been clean & sober for roughly 25 years precisely because I took the advice of some complete strangers who just happened to know more than I did. I quit smoking roughly ten years ago and have spent the past year or so learning to eat vegetarian style.
Three years ago I shook off a bout with pneumonia (way too much work around way too many sick people) only to find that it was masking Legionnaires Disease and that I was looking death in the eye.
I was back to work in a week. I’m no martyr … I was actually feeling up to it. That’s the difference between a healthy lifestyle and the chronic bronchitis I’d had since I was a teenager / young smoker.
Make your own decisions … but what you were told was beneficial and the conclusion you’ve come to now is not.
Not that you asked me.
Mike Smith
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:45 amHey Bill,
Thanks for the long reply. I appreciate your comments more then you know. Any time someone leaves a comment, it makes what I do here that much more worth while, so again, thank you.
Also, I understand what you’re saying. Since this post went live, I’ve actually started leaving pop behind a bit (not as much as I should, but it’s got a LOT better) and I also started riding the exercise bike that’s been doubling as a junk table for the past few months. I’m seeing some good improvements in my stamina throughout the day and my energy levels in the morning (when I’m usually dragging).
Part of my switch wasn’t geared towards the “I need to get healthier or I’m going to die” aspect of it (although that’s true as well), but more because I’m training now to fight in my first Mixed Martial Arts fight later this year so since I have a solid reason behind it, I think that’s what kicked me in the ass more.
Thanks again for the comment. I appreciate your time a LOT.
Mike
Blog Theme Machine
http://www.blogthememachine.com
Mike
May 20th, 2008 at 6:25 pmLike Bill I am a recovering drug addict. I concur completely with his comments and would add a supporting idea or two. 1. Addiction is inherently bad, regardless of the substance. Why, because it limits our freedom to make informed choices. In your case, you absolutely know that your habit is doing you harm while giving you nothing in return but a temporary relief from a craving. Why do it? 2. Dealing head on with life as it presents itself without relying on any material thing outside of your own mental and spiritual resources strengthens you. The more you do, the better you get. You can diminish fear and/or depression, come to a place where you feel contented and serene most of the time, and accomplish more than you thought was possible. I wish you luck. Mike