If you’re checking in with good old Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates tomorrow could you honestly tell him that you made the most out of your life? Did you give it your all? Did you try to make every single day outstanding or were most them were ruined because some of stupid sh*t that you did? As G.I. Joe once said, “Knowing is half the battle” so we’re going to try to help you out by compiling a list of the 7 ways your ruining your day so that you can turn this ship around.

Hitting snooze

Everyone hits the snooze button. No amount of sleep you get ever feels like enough. Why? There’s so many reasons but for most of us it’s because we choose to stay up watching Netflix, scrolling our Facebook feed and getting sucked into YouTube rather than going to bed at a decent time. But no matter how tempting it is to rest “just five more minutes” when you snooze you lose and fact is you’re doing more harm than good. Hitting snooze messes with your internal clock and confuses the heck out of your body. Now you’re more tired and it’s even harder to wake up. Next comes the bad mood and the stress of being late for work that ends up ruining your day.

The answer is to change your getting out of bed habits and give them a purpose. Create small goals to wake up to like making your bed, brewing a fresh cup of coffee, or doing five minutes of meditation. These achievements make you feel accomplished and give you something to wake up for.

Eating junk

Junk food is everywhere. My funny theory is that “Behind every door, there is junk food”. Think about that for a second. Junk food out numbers healthy choices and the convenience of it makes it too tempting to pass up. Not to mention the giant marketing machine behind every brand of junk food out there. You know, the ones with the deceptive messages like, “low fat” or “only 100 calories”. So, you either believe you’re making the right choice or you just give in because who has time to stop long enough to make real food? This leaves you overloaded on sugars and refined carbs. Your blood sugar gets spiked only to have you crashing down soon after. Now you’re tired, sluggish and unproductive. You can’t think as clearly and your problem solving ability just goes to sh*t. And oh yeah, now you also feel fat and gross.

Check out this food guide and start making better food choices. Good rule of thumb is to eat when you’re hungry. Load up on eggs, lean proteins and those colorful things called vegetables. You know, meals and snacks that will power you up rather than crashing you and your blood sugar down.

Skipping a workout

It’s so easy in today’s society to think you’re too busy with everything else to set aside time for your own fitness routine. Work, family, chores all come before your “me time”. Habit and having a foundation and structure to your own personal fitness is important. You might start out with enough intention to hit the gym a few times a week but how long does that last? A day or two of laziness won’t kill you. But, go more than two weeks without working out and according to the Journal of Applied Physiology, you’ll significantly reduce your cardiovascular fitness, lean muscle mass, and insulin sensitivity.

All it takes is committing a bit of time to move. Find 20 minutes to get that blood flowing and up that heart beat up a couple of notches. Use your lunch hour to walk. Schedule a date with the gym after work. How you move isn’t as important as you actually just moving. If you’re a beginner, start slow but hit that sh*t daily. Make it a habit you can’t live without and say goodbye to ruining your days.

Overloading expectations

We tend to be over achievers and put way too much on our plate. We run off this crazed idea that more is better. So, we pile up our “to do” lists like we’re some kind of productivity superhero and when we fall short (because we’re human) we think we suck. It’s absolute sh*t for your self-esteem and there’s goes your productivity for the day.

We all have work we want to get done and things we need to accomplish. Just pick one thing and attack it. Work your ass off and when (and if) you get it done then it’s on to the next one.

Doing things you hate

There’s no winning your day when you limit your options and do things you hate. Fact is, you’re not happy while you’re doing it and getting it done does nothing for you. You cheat yourself out of the sense of achievement you feel when you finish something you’re invested in. Now your mood is trashed and that feeling like you’re wasting your life is ruining your day.

Here’s where you want to explore a few options. 1) Find someone to do it for you. 2) Find another way to do it that you at least like. 3) Sucker someone to work along with you so it’s at least bearable.

Bull dozing

If we’re honest with ourselves we can admit that we want too much. This leads us to becoming human bull dozers. It’s one thing to feel accomplished at the end of the day. It’s a whole other to bull doze the day away. This is when you go into robot mode and your blinders shut out everything else. The day ends and you haven’t had one real conversation with another human. This isn’t just ruining your day, it’s a wrecking ball to your life. A life that only has a finite amount of days to get the most out of.

Start to engage immediately. If you’re a complete A type schedule in breaks throughout your day and go find a reason to laugh, a rose to smell or a human to high five. If you work at home set your alarm every 2 hours and when it goes off call a friend or jump outside and take a walk around the block. Don’t just bull doze projects. Build up memories, good times and life experiences. Or else, what the heck is the point?

Running on autopilot

Routines at work and in life are double edged swords. On one hand, you’ve got a solid direction to follow. Great right? Wrong. Remember that other hand? The one where you’ve turned into a zombie and no longer spend time learning or living? Yeah, that hand sucks.

Snap out of it son! It’s time to balls up and start taking some risks. Get out of your comfort zone and create some challenges in your life. Make that brain of yours work and do something big and scary. Switch up your routines as much as possible. Ask for new exciting projects at work, find a new place to explore, speak up, get vulnerable and go make some new friends.

No go out and make the most out of every damn day!