Don’t be slaves of your Habits!!!!
Every morning, I wake up thinking and hoping it will be a wonderful day. I am an optimistic person. I like to start my day on a positive note. I always try to look for surprises and exciting and unforgettable moments each day. Is it possible in reality? Can every single day be a magical day?
Well, it can certainly happen if you are delighted and content from your heart. It is achievable if you are pursuing what you would enjoy in your life. This miracle becomes a reality if things around you are calm and supportive of your thought process.
In life, everyone never gets a chance to pursue what they like. Most of us are still in the dark and need to figure out what we want to accomplish and where to invest our energies. In this battle of confusion, we keep marching ahead and try to seek contentment. Left with no choice, we pretend to love what we do & look for pride in the same. After some time, this becomes a habit, and we start enjoying what we are doing. It becomes part of our system and a source of happiness and reason for being here. And we pretend to be in our magical world.
Life is uncertain and can’t always be the way you want it. You try to fix things around you to make it smooth like you wish. But in that process, some other obstacle comes your way, which diverts your mind and drags you away from stability. The moment something unexpected occurs, you just come out from that magical cloud you were in so far. You will wonder what this magical cloud is. When things are perfect with you, and you are pleased, don’t you feel light and everything around you looks perfect, too? You think you are meant to be here and float in the air like a cloud. In the blink of an eye, some disruption pricks this cloud, and you may react to this by shouting, crying in pain, or getting irritated. It left you in despair, thinking how helpless you were. Within seconds, our mind is filled with negative thoughts and feelings. What drives this kind of behavior, and what makes our magical cloud go away in seconds?
I always ask myself this question and get only one answer: our current choice. Our sensory system invokes us to behave and forces us towards that choice. What stimulates this choice? It’s none other than our habits. Our mind & our body got conditioned over years of doing certain things in the same repetitive manner that eventually, we completely lost control over it. We become habituated to reacting in specific ways that even our brains can’t control. Yes, it sounds weird, but true. Habit sounds simple, but it significantly influences our mind and commands our entire body’s behavioral system. How do we react, how do we talk, how do we think and act? All are controlled by this indiscreet “Habit.” Some of you may call this one’s style of living and dealing with things. However, if you think deeply, our style and thinking are driven by our habits. The habits we have built over time have now become an integral part of our system. The habits develop from our beliefs and practices, which we have followed conveniently and without disputes. We trust them, and we continue doing the same over and over again. Once we get into the trap of this habit, it’s impossible to come out. Repeating and practicing them regularly solidifies them year after year.
I’ve always been a bookworm and very serious about my goals and objectives in life. I always thought that’s how one can achieve success. I came across many successful people who are accomplished. However, they enjoy their lives too. They know how to strike a balance between hard work and fun. They don’t seem to take everything so seriously in their life. So what was wrong with me, and why couldn’t I be like them? Yes, perhaps, but I am so stubborn that I find it hard to accept it. Out of habit, I continue to take my life seriously. I am trapped in my habit of seeing others, this world, goals, accomplishments of life, and success in a certain way. I am not ready to leave a cocoon, my comfort zone, and fly off like a butterfly. I became the slave of my habits.
I am sure that many of us will have similar stories. Instead of controlling our habits driven by our values, thoughts, beliefs, and practices, they control our actions and decisions. Sometimes, these habits are formed during childhood, in the past. We can control our present based on our choices. However, we can’t change our past. I understand it’s futile to think about the past, but we know life when we look deep into it. It is crucial to reflect on life’s influences, lessons, and learnings to avoid repeating patterns and mistakes in the future. The process will assist us in breaking free from the confinement of “Habits.”
I always tell my son he needs to change his habits. He tries and finds it hard to leave them. Imagine what it would be like for an adult if it were so difficult for a child. Unfortunately, we don’t always have someone in life who is watching our habits and can remind us to change. Nevertheless, it’s essential to understand this pattern and the profound impact of Habits in our lives. Let’s try not to become slaves of our habits. There is nothing wrong with developing new habits, but it’s certainly wrong to embrace the same forever. Keep moving, changing, and adapting to new ways of living to enjoy your magical cloud and seek true happiness.
