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Awakening, do you brush your teeth, comb your hair and greet the day with certain ‘rituals’? Is your breakfast fare much the same each morning? Your clothing? Your means of transportation? Do you always greet friends and fellow workers with an expected bonhomie? Of course. You want to be accepted, thought well of. So you do what is expected. You are part of a society. You play your role. Pretty much a repeat ‘performance’ each day. Nothing wrong with repetition. What ‘works’ to keep you healthy and stable, this is important. You develop dependable habits. Exhibit appropriate behavior. Conform to what everyone around you does. You mesh your personality into a social fabric, a ‘way of living’ that has evolved through the years. Why question it? It ‘works’ for you. Well, most of the time. There are some inadequacies, injustices and the occasional authoritarian intrusions into your life. But, you ‘go along’. You can live without ‘proper medical care’, false accusations, rules telling you how to build your house. Just part of living. You must compromise, ‘a little’, to ‘get by’. Everyone does. Only one thing wrong: You are being determined by habit. For obvious reasons you depend on ‘what’ has gotten you this far. But you can always opt for alternatives. And you probably do when it comes to relationships. When someone disturbs your comfort or peace of mind, you can reach a point when you ‘rebel’. This may be relatively benign. An angry retort or just ‘stone cold’ silence. You may spend the ensuing years harboring an ‘attitude’ towards this person. Mmm. You may on occasion react more vociferously. ‘Striking out’ is something you did when young. You have learned that this is inappropriate and risky. So you usually avoid violence. But you may fantasize retribution. This can become an ongoing part of your inner life. Along with all manner of angry thoughts usually sparked by frustrations. Of course, you determine your own obsessions. You decide whether or not to remain transfixed on the negative that passes through your life. You can accommodate vengefulness, self-pity, arrogance, condescension, covetousness and a host of self-centered preoccupations. You decide what ‘reigns’ in your heart. You, your consciousness, is a lonely place. Just YOU ‘taking on the world’. You depend on certain rote behavior to deal with it effectively. However, you must adjust your attitude occasionally. Threats, changing circumstances: These require innovations. And your flexibility, your willingness to ‘risk’, to try something new, this will determine whether or not you grow or stagnate. It is ‘easy’ to remain complacent when faced with moral and ethical problems. Those people ‘across the sea’ are starving. Do you get involved? “It is their problem. Why bother?” or “Yes. I care. I will do something.” So many choices … decisions. Do you remain obstinately in your ‘comfort zone’? Or do you go down ‘roads less traveled’?
You have to ‘live’ with YOU. You should respect
yourself … be proud of your accomplishments especially in
helping to make the world a better place. But you cannot do this
if you remain complacent, aloof, safely ensconced behind the
veneer of your acceptable, comfy habits. You can ‘fool’ the
‘world’ but never yourself. Cultivate a ‘will to change.’ Life
will be more fulfilling. A truly wiser, maturing you will
evolve.
RETURN TO HABIT DEFINITIONS
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