"A virtuous character is the fruit of self-discipline and good habits. Virtue must be worked for; it does not fall from heaven like rain and snow. Good habits are difficult to form but easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form but difficult to live with."~ Johann David Tuffley
As Stephen Covey says, "Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character."
"When a child is learning to write, it is extremely easy for it to hold the pen wrongly, and to form its letters incorrectly, but it is painfully difficult to hold the pen and to write properly; and this because of the child's ignorance of the art of writing, which can only be dispelled by persistent effort and practice, until at last, it becomes natural and easy to hold the pen properly, and to write correctly, and difficult, as well as altogether unnecessary, to do the wrong thing. It is the same in the vital things of mind and life." ~ James Allen
Our habits take time to learn. What about bad habits that we've acquired? Abraham Hicks said, "Those old habits don't have to be erased, they just become replaced by a new habit that is more in vibrational harmony with who you are and what you want."
"A habit is something you can do without thinking - which is why most of us have so many of them." ~ Frank A. Clark
We drift into habits and they become our behavior - who we are, from other people's point of view. But they do not define who we are: we can change our habits.
"Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters." ~Nathaniel Emmons
Habits that we have consciously created, perhaps as a result of what we have learned in our personal development, serve us as they have become part of our unconscious behavior and so we can move on and focus on building further helpful aspects of our character.
"Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of." ~ Proverb
It requires conscious effort and mindfulness, but you can do it. Three to four weeks of practicing a new desirable behavior every day is all the time you need to make a new good habit. If you can make it through this initial conditioning phase, it becomes easy to sustain thereafter. Indeed, good habits are just as addictive as bad habits but much more rewarding.
