Thought for Saturday 7/26/14 - Richard L. Evans on making and breaking habits: Rip Van Winkle was depicted by one playwright as excusing himself every time he did what he shouldnt do, by saying, I wont count this time. Well, he may not count it, said William James, and a kind heaven may not count it, but it is being counted nonetheless. Down among his nerve cells and fibres, the molecules are counting it, registering and scoring it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is in strict scientific literalness wiped out. And then the celebrated William James said: Could the young but realize how soon they will become... walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct.... We are spinning our own fates, good or evil.... Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar.... We are... imitators and copiers of our past selves. But our habits, good or bad, werent always habits. What we now do habitually we once did first--and then again--and then again. And since we become slaves to our own past performances, we had better be particular about beginning anything that could become a habit. Obviously the reason we have bad habits is because we did the first time what shouldnt have been done at all. This may seem to offer little comfort to those who already have unwanted habits. Fortunately, however, bad habits arent hopeless. But it takes more effort to get out of a rut than it does to get in one, and sometimes the only way to get out is to get out all at once. The best way to leave bad habits behind is simply to leave them behind, without lingering or looking back. The break has to come sometime. Sometime has to be the last time. And it isnt likely to be any easier later, because habits, like ruts, dig more deeply with time, even though at first we may think of them as something we can start or stop whenever we want to.... The best time to break a bad habit is before the first time. The next best time is NOW--before the next time. - Richard L. Evans, I Wont Count This Time..., The Spoken Word, April 2, 1967; see Improvement Era, June 1967, p. 83
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 11:19:12 +0000
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