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or if replaced by another, it is
hoped , bcttcr habit.
So-called free spirits and indi–
vidualists (and many think that
describes them) are not really
free of habits. Th ey merely devel–
op their own idiosyncratic hab–
its.
What we call human personali–
ty, in its broadest sense, is to a
large extent a composition of
thousands of individual and spe–
cific habit traits. Humans are
compounds of various habits.
Thoughts a human thinks are not
habitual, of course. but patterns
of thought very much tend to
become habitual. Sorne people
develop sound thought patterns;
o thers a re habitua ll y scat ter–
brained.
The capacity to form habits is
possible with most higher living
things. But the way the marvel–
ous human mind was created with
the spirit in man, humans more
th an a ny ot her c reat ures, a nd
more than we care to admit , are
creatures of habits- habits of
thinking, habits of acting. habits
of feeling.
Uni que in Habits
Our indivi du al habit patterns
show up not on ly in how we
pronounce words, but in our gen–
eral attitudes and demeanor in
life. lt shows up in how we cope
with anxiety.
Sorne, as a result of learned
habit, develop a perpetua! frown,
others exhibit a quick temper,
othe rs fearfulness, hostility or
suspicion. Others are habitually
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more open, loving, friendly and
exude confidence.
We develop differing, even
unique, habits in our hand, body
and posture movements. Ditferent
dietary and appetite habits are
acquired. We develop differing
feeling habits- what makes us fee l
good or bad, what produces fear
and apprehension and how and to
.whom we respond sexually.
All of these are learned. We do
not inherit t hese specific traits.
Even repeated successes or fail–
ures in life a re often a matter of
habit; they result from a repcatcd
way of responding to problems
and challenges in li fe.
Negative Side
Habits free us to learn new
things. They also make it dilllcult
for us to change established ways
of doing things, or thinking o r
feeling. Habits lock us into cer–
tain response patterns, so we tend
to resist any change in ou r accus–
tomed routine, even if it is in our
best interests to do so.
Too often humans are slaves to
bad habits. l t takes strong charac–
ter to break bad habits!
Animals could never survive
for long in nature if t hey devel–
oped many of the bad habits
humans do. W e may smoke.
abuse alcohol, misuse sex, pop
pills, overeat, underexercise or
develop emotionally destructive
feelings and remain alive, though
we are still slowly killing our–
selves as individuals. By thesc bad
habits we are limit ing or crippling
our human potential a nd dcvelop-
ment. Ma ny bad habits are, in
fact , what the Bible calls s in!
They involve violation of God's
g reat spiritual law, the T en Com–
mandments.
Bad habits reinforced by chem–
ically addict ing subs tances- nic–
otine a nd certain drugs, for in–
stance- are very hard to shake.
But habits damaging human emo–
tions and att itudes can also be
very difficult, at times even more
difficult. to change.
T ragically, whole nat ions can
get locked into wrong habits of
eating, acti ng, thinking and feel–
ing.
Overcoming,Wro ng Habi t s
Who hasn't been a slave to bad
habits? Who hasn 't carelessly
allowed bad habits to take deeper
and deeper root in their mind and
emotions?
l mproving you r life- phys i–
cally, mentally, emotiona ll.y or
spiritually- is largely a matter o f
c hanging or overcoming bad hab–
its. 1t is a matter of developing
new, better and more dominati ng
habit patterns of thinking, acting
and feeling.
T here are absolute fundamen–
tal requirements and essential
steps that must be applied to
replace a bad habit with a good
one. Many lose s ight of such
essential steps because of heavy
demands on their minds or time
or because of discouragement
from past fai lures to overcome
sorne nagging habit or vice.
The first law of changing any
wrong habit is:
The
PLAIN TRUTH