Excellent Substitutes For Your Daily Addictions

We’ve all been there, fighting our vices, our guilty pleasures – whether it’s sugar, coffee or that nightly beer with your colleagues. Health effects aside, are minor addictions beneficial to your career? Hardly ever.

Whenever we engage in our favourite addictive activity, we get that uncomfortable feeling of drifting further from our goals and aspirations. And it’s so hard to break the circle that, in some cases, cold turkey and simply resisting your cravings may not be enough.

Whatever it is and whatever you’re dealing with, you need to have a plan for what you will do instead of your bad habit.

Going for a run instead of scrolling Facebook

Many of us have developed a syndrome of checking Facebook and Twitter compulsively for no reason in particular. But there are myriad articles proving that overconsumption of Facebook and other social media doesn’t lead to happiness.

Feeling stressed out or outright bored? What about going for a walk in the park, or possibly a good old run? You can rest assured you’ll feel a whole lot better after a half-an-hour jog than after 30 minutes of “catching up with what’s new on Facebook”.

If you really abhor doing any form of exercise, you can try downloading this useful application. Instead of your usual feed, you get one inspiring quote that reminds you of your purpose.

Fresh and simple sustenance instead of lazy convenience food

Why do we like ready-to-eat convenience meals? Because they’re convenient, super-fast and delicious. Mmmm, additives. But budget-conscious students and graduates also know that these type of food items are generally way more expensive.

So what’s the alternative? Cook with fresh and simple ingredients that are available. The main objection that millennials have against cooking from scratch is that it can be very time-consuming…. But the end result is so much tastier, so much cheaper and so much healthier!

Being present instead of “being busy”

There is a common misconception that doing more, or taking on too much, in the same space of time, is the sign of getting things done. Being busy, in and of itself, is okay. But not at the expense of giving 100% of ourselves into our present activity.

It’s the quality that matters, not quantity; more is not more, better is more. In case you’re having troubles with slowing down and fully enjoying the immediate moment, these are some really useful guidelines to follow.

Also, feel free to scrap that to-do list. It’s been proven it can do more harm than good. Try doing an anti-to-do list, a list of things you’ve accomplished during the day – by being present and focused.

Power nap instead of gulping down yet another shot of espresso

This is one of the toughest challenges to tackle, especially if you’re a natural born coffee addict.

If you can’t master taking a short power nap of about 20 minutes without turning it into a 3 hours long deep sleep, then your other option could be switching to green tea. It has slightly less caffeine than a cup of java, but enough to give you a boost without any negative side effects of coffee.

There are alternatives out there for every addiction.We won’t even mention smoking, for which the alternatives are numerous and well-marketed. We live in a modern world replete with choices, so get proactive; ‘I can’t help it’ is no longer an excuse.

Inspiring Interns is a graduate recruitment agency which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships and giving out graduate careers advice. To hire graduates or browse graduate jobs, visit their website.