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The Law

Habit - I

Henry James was a renowned author whose novels are still popular and well read, the most popular being 'The Portrait Of A lady". Our discussion in this post is not about Henry. We will be more interested in his sibling, William James.

William James was the "ordinary" member of, otherwise, a well known family. He was a sickly child. He could not stick to any career path for a time. Depressed and frustrated, he contemplated giving up his life at the age of 28. That was in 1870. He decided to give himself one more year. During that one year he decided in believing that he had full control on himself and his destiny. He decided in believing that he could get better and he had the free will to change himself. He applied himself in right earnest.

Change he did. He lived well beyond that one year and died in 1910 after living an accomplished life. He became a philosopher and psychologist and was trained as a physician, though he never did practise medicine. His most famous conclusion was that one had to believe that he could create change. Habits, he concluded, were one of the most creative method for creating the belief in change.

He defines Habit as "that with which we do a thing with difficulty for the first time, but soon do it more and more easily, and finally, with sufficient practice , do it semi-mechanically, or hardly with any consciousness at all." We choose our habits, consciously or unconsciously. Once we choose the habits and they get ingrained within us , we are drawn "irresistibly towards our destiny, whatever the that destiny may be". The way we habitually perceive ourselves and our environment, creates our world for us.

William James wrote in 1892  " All our life....... is but a mass of habits - practical, emotional and intellectual - systematically designed for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly towards our destiny, what ever the latter may be." Habits are very powerful and very sticky indeed. They are so powerful that we tend to ignore the dictates of good sense when the good sense wants us to go against a habit.

We would like to believe that we make considered decisions in making choices in our day to day living. In reality it is hardly ever so. We take most of our actions out of sheer habit. Now, one habit taken individually carries little influence. But woven together the habits become powerful and create our world. Our habits of indulgences in food, drink, sex etc., our habits of managing our finances, our habits of reacting to stimulus get together to determine our level of abundance in health, wealth, joy and happiness.

Auf wiedersehen

Prabir

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