I tend to find myself enraptured by the inspirational words of CEOs, the major business moves made by entrepreneurs and the surprising success stories that come from unsuspecting individuals.
There are so many lessons to take away from those people and the varied levels of prosperity they’ve attained in their professional lives. I’ve certainly injected some of them into my everyday life and molded them into what I do as a writer. And as someone who’s constantly delving into what it takes to truly flourish, I reverted to my usual chatbot companion to get its thoughts on the main roadblocks that successful people should abandon.
After I presented that question to ChatGPT, it kicked off its latest coaching session with this enlightening statement: Successful people often focus heavily on what to start doing. But just as important is figuring out what to stop doing once you've built momentum.
Afterward, ChatGPT highlighted 12 tips on the main things successful people should stop doing. After reviewing them, I made a mental note of seven of those winning habits and changed some of my well-worn habits.
ChatGPT’s advice on what successful people should consider quitting
Out of the 12 bits of practical wisdom ChatGPT provided me with in response to my prompt, here are the seven tips that stood out to me the most:
- Stop working just because you can: Being able to work 12 hours doesn't mean you should. Eventually, protecting your energy becomes as important as maximizing your output.
- Stop saying yes to everything: Success creates more opportunities—and more distractions. Saying yes to every request can leave little time for the work that actually matters.
- Stop trying to prove yourself: Constantly demonstrating that you're smart, capable, or successful can become an exhausting full-time job. Let your results speak for you.
- Stop optimizing everything: Successful people can become addicted to productivity hacks, perfect routines, and squeezing another 5% out of everything. Sometimes "good enough" is the most productive option.
- Stop comparing yourself to other successful people: Someone else's career, income, house, or accomplishments can make your own progress feel inadequate—even when you're doing exceptionally well.
- Stop neglecting your personal life until "later": There may never be a magical point when work stops demanding your attention. Relationships, hobbies, health, and downtime shouldn't be rewards you earn after succeeding.
- Stop holding onto what worked in the past: A strategy that helped you succeed may eventually become what holds you back. Success requires periodically questioning your own playbook.
How those pieces of advice altered my outlook on life for the better
With all those professional and personal improvement recommendations in mind, I slowly but surely began putting them into practice.
Instead of working past my allotted hours and opening my work laptop over the weekend like I used to, I made a habit of using Friday as my day of full work completion and that evening for idea generation, so my next two days could be devoted to physical and mental relaxation.
Not saying yes to everything was hard for me to start doing (since I have such a hard time saying no), but I eventually followed that rule by not outright saying no to requests and instead suggesting people who would be better suited to some of the opportunities asked of me.
Refraining from constantly trying to prove my worth through haughty conversations & pompous social media posts and letting my published pieces' viewer numbers speak for themselves instead soon became commonplace. Showing and proving without boasting became a habit well worth adopting, especially for someone whose work is public for the world to see and read.
Breaking my habit of constantly optimizing every facet of my life was a bit difficult at first, but I learned to apply it only to some things while using the “good enough” rule for other duties (my assorted exercise and stretching routines don’t demand perfection, after all).
I definitely quit comparing myself to the familiar folks and celebrities around my age on my social media timelines who seem to be winning at life every time they post something new—I had to remember that everyone has different degrees of success, and mine should offer a sense of fulfillment based on my personal goals.
While my job is demanding, I’ve learned to take the time to go outside more and mingle with strangers & loved ones alike. Not as a reward for my hectic work week, but as a regular part of my free-time endeavors that put me in a tranquil mental state.
And finally, I remembered to stop reverting to the same professional success that worked so well in the past. Instead, I observed them, looked for ways to adapt them to the ever-changing tides of my profession, and made the adjustments needed to possibly notch another win on my tech journalist belt.
In that aforementioned case, Babe Ruth's wise words about baseball certainly apply to anyone: "Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games."
Bottom line
ChatGPT can sometimes have a way with words, I must say. Like most self-help coaches and thriving professionals I’ve come across on TV, in books, and on podcasts, OpenAI’s chatbot laid out a myriad of helpful pieces of advice that pushed me to change some of my habits on the never-ending road to success.
Spending the rest of the precious time I have on this Earth with the seven professional and personal life tips ChatGPT supplied me with turned out to be a success in and of itself.
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