8 Bad Habits To Quit In New Year For A Successful 2025

Check out the 8 bad habits that you need to quit in the new year for a successful and happy 2025.

New years are exciting, but they also come with a ton of responsibilities and a touch of nervousness.

There is a lot of pressure to do things the right way, reinvent yourself, and create habits that can potentially change your life.

You might have already penned down your resolutions for this year.

My top three are traveling, reading 80 books, and practicing my fitness routine.

But there is a separate list of habits that I need to quit, and I think it will be the key to achieving my goals this year.

The reason is simple – To make space for long-term growth, you need to get rid of all the roadblocks that stop you from being your best self.

Think of all those past years where you’ve set resolutions only to break them midway, all because you didn’t prioritize quitting your bad habits.

Let’s not repeat that mistake this year. 2025 can be yours if you clear out some toxic habits from your system, 8 of which I’ve listed in this post.

These habits are pretty common to indulge in, but breaking them can clear up your path toward the best year ever.

Ready, set, go!

8 Habits To Quit This Year

1. Setting The Same Goals Over And Over Again

The number one habit on this list is a major culprit why most of us don’t achieve our dream life – setting the same goals over and over again.

Think back to that one goal you’ve been chasing really hard.

It could be dropping a certain amount of weight, being sugar-free, or getting richer in six months.

And now think how many times you’ve tried, failed, and then tried again with the same approach.

What that tells us is that we are failing at achieving our goals, but not learning from our mistakes.

If we were learning, we’d be changing the goals and how we were going about them.

Don’t get into the cycle of repeating your goals in 2025.

Whenever one approach fails, analyze what went wrong and adjust the goal. You could water it down, or go harder.

If dropping 10 pounds in two months doesn’t work out, then create a goal to lose just 2 pounds in a month.

Once you tick off that goal, you can set the same goal (because it worked for you already), or set new numbers to keep things interesting.

It’s like creating a different path to reach the same destination. You’ll get to learn, adapt, and hopefully, reach the finish line by the end of the year.

Bookmark now: How To Stay Motivated To Achieve Your Goals – 11 Brilliant Tricks

2. Taking Breaks By Indulging In Unhealthy Activities

Taking breaks is very important, whether during the day, on the weekend, or when you’re tired from life and decide to tune out the world.

But how you seek your breaks is just as important.

Unhealthy break methods wouldn’t do much for your mental wellness and might even exhaust you from within.

These include scrolling on your social media feed, binge-watching a TV show, smoking, drinking, or hanging out with people who don’t make you feel good.

There are better ways to cope with stress that can replenish your mental energies and add to your happiness.

You can cook, read, go to a cafe, or write in your journal. You can also give yourself a self-care spa day once;

Take a long bath, light some scented candles, read a cozy book, and watch a feel-good movie while enjoying a home-cooked meal.

3. Letting Anger Get The Better Of You

I am yet to meet a person who doesn’t get angry. We’re all prone to this ugly emotion, but few of us ever try to eliminate it from our system.

It’s important to give in to our emotions sometimes to heal, but anger is not one of them. It makes you bitter, guilty, and regretful later on.

I can’t think of a single circumstance in my life when I’ve gotten angry and been proud of it.

I asked around four of my close people if they felt the same, and they all agreed, which is why this habit made it to this list. 2025 can be the year when you finally become a more patient and loving version of yourself.

You don’t need to go into a full-on zen mode, but aiming for an anger-free behavior will help you tame this emotion in most instances.

Here are some calming practices that will help:

Mediate for 15 minutes every day (please)
After every angry episode, write down in your journal about how it made you feel
Stay hydrated (it helps)
Focus on your breaths when you find yourself getting angry
Spend time in nature
Find healthy outlets for your angry thoughts (journaling, workouts, walking)

Most importantly, face all your emotions head-on. Don’t give yourself any chance to implode. Bottling things up never helps.

4. Clutter And Disorganization

A messy and cluttered space is a recipe for a disturbed mental space.

If you have a habit of leaving your clothes in disarray, shoving stuff in your wardrobe, and leaving books unstacked, you will have trouble fulfilling your productivity and organization-related goals.

You can choose to be more put together, starting right now. After you’re done reading this post, organize a small part of your room.

It can be a drawer, your bookshelf, or even a pen stand. Going forward, spare a few minutes each day to organize a new corner of your home.

Declutter your closet at the beginning of a new season, throw away junk every month, and for each new item you buy, dispose of another that you don’t need.

Small habits like these will lead to a big improvement in your organizational skills, and make 2025 more successful than the last year.

5. Comparing Yourself To Others

We’re living in the age of constant connectivity; there’s too much information on others (often misguiding) that can lead to unwanted comparisons.

One minute you’re feeling awesome in your skin, but then you spot a happy-looking model on Instagram and start wallowing in self-doubt.

Feeling less than someone might be common, but is it healthy or even fair to yourself in any way? No.

You’re not going to feel inspired to do better by feeling negative about yourself. It’ll only make you miserable and prone to envy.

This year, make it a resolution to step out of this game of comparison. Your journey is unique and should not be distorted by thoughts of how others are doing in their life.

Seek inspiration, and smile at others’ victories, but at the end of the day, visualize yourself walking on a path that has no spectators and no competitors.

It’ll liberate you and help you be more authentic.

Might help: How To Be More Secure In Yourself – 10 Ways To Fight Insecurities

6. Overspending

It’s good to have bold money goals for the new year.

But before you launch that business idea or open a YouTube channel with the hopes of making it big, get rid of the persistent habit of overspending first.

Impulsive purchases and unplanned expenditures can leave you feeling broke, even if you have sufficient money to get by.

There is a thick line between mindful spending and overspending, and this year, it’s time to finally draw it for yourself.

Don’t succumb to the allure of instant gratification; distinguish between your wants and your needs, prioritizing the latter before rewarding yourself with the former.

This isn’t about depriving yourself of life’s pleasures, but rather about making informed choices that align with your long-term goals.

Plus, it’s always good to limit the influence of materialistic possessions on your happiness and focus on the simpler pleasures of life.

7. Saving The Best For The Last

When it comes to your meals, it can be rewarding to save the best for the last, but not when it comes to your everyday life.

Up until the last year, I was the girl who kept all her good stuff locked away. I don’t know what golden opportunity I was waiting for to unleash my prized possessions.

It got to a point where I had an overflow of nice things I wasn’t using, and less stuff that I used every day but that wasn’t so good.

Stop saving your best items for a perfect moment that might never come. You don’t wait for good things to happen to you; you make them happen right now.

Pull out those luxurious bath products on the weekend, wear that nice dress to your next outing, and get into that habit of picking ‘better’ over ‘okay’.

This will also urge you to buy things that you genuinely like and stock your box with better possessions.

Check out: 12 Minimalist Habits For A Simple And Sweet Life

8. Using Screens Before Bed

This one’s going to be a challenge to quit, which is why I’ve saved it for the end. Most of you probably use screens during your bedtime.

Maybe you like tapping on your laptop, watching the TV, or just scrolling through your Insta feeds.

You spend all day working, so you try to make up for the exhaustion by turning to screens for a break.

But all this does is mess up your body’s circadian rhythm and cause a restless sleep.

Your eyes and your brain do not need digital exposure before sleeping. A healthy bedtime routine should involve healthy practices.

You can dive into a good book, practice meditation, or simply enjoy a calming cup of tea.

The aim is to create a conducive environment for rest and recharge, and for that, you need to put away your screens at least an hour before bed.

Ditch These Habits For A Year Of Growth And Success

These 8 habits are major roadblocks to growth. Discarding them from your life will help you make space for more positive habits.

Keep in mind that breaking habits takes time and effort, so be patient with yourself.

Setting realistic goals and taking gradual steps will help you successfully quit these habits in the new year.