“The chains of habit,” said one man, “are too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken” (Samuel Johnson).
It seemed to me that most of the failures were shackled by poor habits.
A Spanish proverb reads: “Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.”
Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.
I would remind you “walking bundles of habits” that there is a relationship between thoughts, actions, habits, and characters. After the language of the Bible we might well say: “Thought begat Action; and Action took unto himself Habit; and Character was born of Habit; and Character was expressed through Personality. And, Character and Personality lived after the manner of their parents.”
C. A. Hill: “We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap our habits; we sow our habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny” (Home Book of Quotations, p. 845).
If character is truly born of habit—and it is—it is vital that all of us understand the process of habit formation. Not only will this process, if applied, enable us to refine character, but it will also assure us success in our missions in the mission field, at home, at school, or wherever.
That which we try to do, and persist in doing, becomes easy to do, not because its nature is changed, but because our power to do is developed. [Josiah Gilbert Holland (Timothy Titcomb, pseudo.),Gold-Foil: Hammered from Popular Proverbs (New York: Charles Scribner, 1859), 291]
you must bolster your will or desire by riveting your mind upon the virtues of the desired habit.
Once we have determined the new habit or the improved pattern of living, we must guard against any inclination to deviate. No exceptions must be tolerated and no excuses invented. For every breach of our new resolution returns us to point zero, or below, and adds strength to the behavior we are trying to conquer.
“Look not behind thee” (Genesis 19:17), were the Lord’s words to Lot and his company, and those words apply to you and to me as we seek to improve our lot.
you must plunge wholeheartedly into the new program of conduct. Wholeheartedly: You do not let go of old habits gradually and move into new ones slowly. You do not taper off from the old, because that only prolongs the struggle. It also provides opportunities for the old habit to increase its hold. The new habit, if it is to survive, must be favored in every possible way and repeated in its complete form as often as possible.
I have suggested to you six steps which may assist you in cultivating new habits. Let me review the process quickly: (1)Define the desired habit, (2) bind yourself to act, (3) put the new conduct into operation, (4) bolster your will or desire, (5) do not look back, and (6) plunge wholeheartedly into the new conduct.
