First of all, let me congratulate you on making it into the New Year 2019.

I pray that this year shall be a year of unseasoned breakthrough and favour in your life and family, a year of double promotion and blessings.
The above words in the second paragraph are not far-fetched from what we are usually told every beginning of a new year or at cross overnights by our various religious leaders.

While I agree with the clerics on the usual new-year prayers I must also add that they need to sum the prayers up with the fundamental teachings necessary for you to achieve your set goal for the year.

In this article, it is my intention to address those killer habits that are capable of dragging us down in the quest of achieving our goals or resolution for the year 2019

4 Dream-Killer habits you should avoid in 2019

#1. Drunkenness and intoxication

You might have a good paying job, a good home and a nice car attached to it but you can still be useless to yourself and to your community if you always drink yourself to stupor. This is regardless of highly placed and influential you might be.

The thing about drunk or intoxicated people is that they are always broke before the next payday because they spend more on drink than what they save. In fact, they can hardly have a savings account. They are quick to spend their earnings buying drinks for themselves or their friends. 

#2. Betting and gambling

I can tell you that over 50% of the younger population in Nigeria today are involved in one form of betting or the other to the extent that they have termed it “Youth Empowerment Program”.

I shake my head when I see young men (women inclusive these days), responsible young men moving around with a receipt kind of white pieces of paper with some figures written on them (a glaring indication of someone that bets).

One bad thing about betting is that it is addictive, you can get so addicted to the extent that you will be tempted to borrow just to play a bet with the hope of winning. I even know a student that placed a bet his school fees but lost all. He suffered depression because of that and almost killed himself.

To fully understand what I am trying to say, I strongly recommend that you read my article on the effects of online betting on Nigerian youths.

#3. Lack of saving culture

Let me begin by acknowledging that saving money is not always as easy as being portrayed by some people especially when you have a lot of mouths to feed or great responsibilities to meet.

But in as much as it is difficult to save money, it is also very possible to achieve if you work towards it.

Form a habit of saving a reasonable percentage of your income or monthly salary but make sure that your saving is logical enough for you to be able to survive till the next payday.

You can join any of the trusted cooperatives or have a bank account that you will dedicate for your monthly savings.

Discipline yourself from making withdrawals from such account by not applying for ATM cards, online and mobile banking on such account. Such monies should be your last resort only in the case of desperate situations.

#4. Bad planning and time management

This is another big factor that invites failure easily in our day to day life as humans. Failure to take time to plan your year can lead to a wasted voyage in 2019.

When I talk of time management, this extends to how much time you spend online and what you are doing online. Discipline yourself to spend stipulated time online doing meaningful things.

Let me share a bit of daily routine for you to learn from it.

I wake up 5.30 in the morning and go out for jogging for 1 hour. I am seated in the office by 8 am and commence my work for the day. I sometimes stay back in the office after the close of work by 4 pm to use the internet facility to do my online web development course. Because I am single and stay alone, I can afford to go home by 10 pm before retiring for the day.

This is averagely my routine for every day, although sometimes I try to relax by reading a book or watching a movie. I spend most of my time alone and indoors because that is the only way I can have time to develop myself through self-teaching using online resource materials.

In conclusion, you cannot continue to repeat one process that is not achieving any results every year and expect to advance to that level that you desire to be. Make a change a positive and intentional change and see the magic that follows.

I must tell you that it’s not going to be easy to implement at first but it is highly doable if only you can put your mind to it.

Nothing is impossible, it can only be difficult!