Issue Number 1001 | Get Over Yourself | Advocate.com Get Over Yourself  |  | Advocate.com

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Get Over Yourself
Are addictions and bad habits standing in your way?
From The Advocate  January 29, 2008
Get Over Yourself

Ask an accomplished businessperson how he or she made it to the top and you’ll get any number of responses: great mentors, hard work, well-defined goals. I’ve yet to hear, however, “I couldn’t have done it without my pack-a-day habit -- really keeps me going,” or “Barbiturates gave me my edge over the competition.”

Addictions -- behaviors that we keep doing even though they don’t serve us well -- inevitably hold us back. I’m not just talking about the “standard” addictions like alcohol or drugs. I’m talking about all of our compulsive behaviors. Take my great friend Dave from Los Angeles. Dave is an incredible holistic doctor with amazing dreams who believes in the power of integrated medicine to transform the health care industry. He’s been talking for the longest time about opening his own clinic. Unfortunately, he’s a major procrastinator -- that’s his addiction.

Addiction comes in many flavors. For some people, it’s being defensive. For others, it’s avoiding conflict. Think of all the “dreamers” you know -- and chances are you know many -- who have great ideas and lofty ambitions. Now think of all the dreamers you know who actually achieved their dreams and made their goals a reality. Chances are you know very few. Why do so many dreams go unfulfilled? Homophobia? The proverbial glass ceiling? Lack of a national nondiscrimination law? (By the way, acting like a victim is an addiction too.) Or could the problem be that your own bad habits prevent you from achieving your greatest potential? My vote is there. It’s been true for me.

Ferrazzi is the head of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a strategic consulting and professional development firm in Los Angeles. Learn more about him -- and sign up for his weekly business tips -- at NeverEatAlone.com.

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