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Lesson IX -
Concentration Can Overcome Bad Habits
By Theron
Q. Dumont
Habits make or
break us to a
far greater extent than we like to admit. Habit is both a powerful
enemy and wonderful ally of concentration. You must learn to overcome
habits which are injurious to concentration, and to cultivate those
which increase it.
The large majority of people are controlled by their habits and are
buffeted around by them like waves of the ocean tossing a piece of
wood. They do things in a certain way because of the power of habit.
They seldom ever think of concentrating on why they do them this or
that way, or study to see if they could do them in a better way. Now my
object in this chapter is to get you to concentrate on your habits so
you can find out which are good and which are bad for you. You will
find that by making a few needed changes you can make even those that
are not good for you, of service; the good habits you can make much
better.
The first thing I want you to realize is that all habits are governed
consciously or unconsciously by the will. Most of us are forming new
habits all the time. Very often, if you repeat something several times
in the same way, you will have formed the habit of doing it that way.
But the oftener you repeat it the stronger that habit grows and the
more deeply it becomes embedded in your nature. After a habit has been
in force for a long time, it becomes almost a part of you, and is
therefore hard to overcome. But you can still break any habit by strong
concentration on its opposite.
"All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of
habits--practical, emotional, and intellectual--systematically
organized, for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our
destiny whatever the latter may be."
We are creatures of habits, "imitators and copiers of our past selves."
We are liable to be "bent" or "curved" as we can bend a piece of paper,
and each fold leaves a crease, which makes it easier to make the fold
there the next time. "The intellect and will are spiritual functions;
still they are immersed in matter, and to every movement of theirs,
corresponds a movement in the brain, that is, in their material
correlative." This is why habits of thought and habits of willing can
be formed. All physical impressions are the carrying out of the actions
of the will and intellect. Our nervous systems are what they are today,
because of the way they have been exercised.
As we grow older most of us become more and more like automatic
machines. The habits we have formed increase in strength. We work in
our old characteristic way. Your associates learn to expect you to do
things in a certain way. So you see that your habits make a great
difference in your life, and as it is just about as easy to form good
habits as it is bad, you should form only the former. No one but
yourself is responsible for your habits. You are free to form the
habits that you should and if everyone could realize the importance of
forming the right kind of habits what a different world this would be.
How much happier everyone would be. Then all instead of the few might
win success.
Habits are formed more quickly when we are young, but if we have
already passed the youthful plastic period the time to start to control
our habits is right now, as we will never be any younger.
You will find the following maxims worth remembering.
First Maxim:
"We must make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy."
Second Maxim:
"In the acquisition of a new habit as in the leaving off of an old one,
we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an
initiative as possible."
The man that is in the habit of doing the right thing from boyhood, has
only good motives, so it is very important for you that you concentrate
assiduously on the habits that reinforce good motives. Surround
yourself with every aid you can. Don't play with fire by forming bad
habits. Make a new beginning today. Study why you have been doing
certain things. If they are not for your good, shun them henceforth.
Don't give in to a single temptation for every time you do, you
strengthen the chain of bad habits. Every time you keep a resolution
you break the chain that enslaves you.
Third Maxim:
"Never allow an exception to occur till the new habit is securely
rooted in your life." Here is the idea, you never want to give in,
until the new habit is fixed else you undo all that has been
accomplished by previous efforts. There are two opposing inclinations.
One wants to be firm, and the other wants to give in. By your will you
can become firm, through repetition. Fortify your will to be able to
cope with any and all opposition.
Fourth Maxim:
"Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution
you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the
direction of the habits you aspire to gain."
To make a resolve and not to keep it is of little value. So by all
means keep every resolution you make, for you not only profit by the
resolution, but it furnishes you with an exercise that causes the brain
cells and physiological correlatives to form the habit of adjusting
themselves to carry out resolutions. "A tendency to act, becomes
effectively engrained in us in proportion to the uninterrupted
frequency with which the actions actually occur, and the brain `grows'
to their use. When a resolve or a fine glow of feeling is allowed to
evaporate without bearing fruit, it is worse than a chance lost."
If you keep your resolutions you form a most valuable habit. If you
break them you form a most dangerous one. So concentrate on keeping
them, whether important or unimportant, and remember it is just as
important for this purpose to keep the unimportant, for by so doing you
are forming the habit.
Fifth Maxim:
"Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous
exercise every day."
The more we exercise the will, the better we can control our habits.
"Every few days do something for no other reason than its difficulty,
so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not
unnerved or untrained to stand the test. Asceticism of this sort is
like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods. The tax
does him no good at the time, and possibly may never bring him a
return, but if the fire does come, his having paid it will be his
salvation from ruin. So with the man who has daily insured himself to
habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial
in unnecessary things. "He will stand like a tower when everything
rocks around him and his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff
in the blast."
The young should be made to concentrate on their habits and be made to
realize that if they don't they become walking bundles of injurious
habits. Youth is the plastic state, and should be utilized in laying
the foundation for a glorious future.
The great value of habit for good and evil cannot be overestimated.
"Habit is the deepest law of human nature." No man is stronger than his
habits, because his habits either build up his strength or decrease it.
Why We Are Creatures of Habits. Habits have often been called a
labor-saying invention, because when they are formed they require less
of both mental and material strength. The more deeply the habit becomes
ingrained the more automatic it becomes. Therefore habit is an
economizing tendency of our nature, for if it were not for habit we
should have to be more watchful. We walk across a crowded street; the
habit of stopping and looking prevents us from being hurt. The right
kind of habits keeps us from making mistakes and mishaps. It is a well
known fact that a chauffeur is not able to master his machine safely
until he has trained his body in a habitual way. When an emergency
comes he instantly knows what to do. Where safety depends on quickness
the operator must work automatically. Habits mean less risk, less
fatigue, and greater accuracy.
"You do not want to become a slave to habits of a trivial nature. For
instance, Wagner required a certain costume before he could compose
corresponding parts of his operas. Schiller could never write with ease
unless there were rotten apples in the drawer of his desk from which he
could now and then obtain an odor which seemed to him sweet. Gladstone
had different desks for his different activities, so that when he
worked on Homer he never sat among habitual accompaniments of his
legislative labors."
In order to overcome undesirable habits, two things are necessary. You
must have trained your will to do what you want it to do, and the
stronger the will the easier it will be to break a habit. Then you must
make a resolution to do just the opposite of what the habit is.
Therefore one habit must replace another. If you have a strong will,
you can tenaciously and persistently concentrate on removing the bad
habit and in a very short time the good habit will gain the upper hand.
I will bring this chapter to a close by giving Doctor Oppenheim's
instructions for overcoming a habit:
"If you want to abolish a habit and its accumulated circumstances as
well, you must grapple with the matter as earnestly as you would with a
physical enemy. You must go into the encounter with all tenacity of
determination, with all fierceness of resolve--yea, even with a passion
for success that may be called vindictive. No human enemy can be as
insidious, so persevering, as unrelenting as an unfavorable habit. It
never sleeps, it needs no rest.
"It is like a parasite that grows with the growth of the supporting
body, and, like a parasite, it can best be killed by violent separation
and crushing.
When life is stormy and all seems against us, that is when we often
acquire wrong habits, and it is then, that we have to make a gigantic
effort to think and speak as we should; and even though we may feel the
very reverse at that moment the tiniest effort will be backed up by a
tremendous Power and will lift us to a realization never felt before.
It is not in the easy, contented moments of our life that we make our
greatest progress, for then it requires no special effort to keep in
tune. But it is when we are in the midst of trials and misfortunes,
when we think we are sinking, being overwhelmed, then it is important
for us to realize that we are linked to a great Power and if we live as
we should, there is nothing that can occur in life, which could
permanently injure us, nothing can happen that should disturb us. So
always remember you have within you unlimited power, ready to manifest
itself in the form which fills our need at the moment. If, when we have
something difficult to solve, we would be silent like the child, we can
get the inspiration when it comes; we will know how to act, we will
find there is no need to hurry or disturb ourselves, that it is always
wiser to wait for guidance from within, than to act on impulse from
Without.
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