We all know what is meant by forming habits--either “good” or “bad.”
It is always easier to do a thing a second time than at first. If
any specific action is performed a great number of times, it becomes
practically automatic, so that we do not have to think about it at
all. Every step in walking is conscious at first; every action in
buttoning a button or tying a tie; in time these actions become more
or less unconscious. A habit, once formed, is hard to break, but it is
relatively easy to break in the early stages of its formation.
Man has been defined as “a bundle of habits.” We hardly realize,
perhaps, the extent to which habit governs us--not only in our physical
actions, but also in our trends and attitudes of thought. “Habit second
Nature?” exclaimed the Duke of Wellington; “habit is ten times nature!”
There is much truth in this assertion. When we form a new habit, we
cut a new groove in the brain, so to speak, and nervous currents find
it much easier to travel over this beaten path, rather than to cut a
new one. Every time that path is used, it becomes relatively easier
and easier for the nervous current to pass over it; and the result is
that, whenever a nervous current passes in its immediate vicinity, it
tends to shoot along that path, before it can be prevented from doing
so. The action in question is then performed. Of course, this is only
a rough simile, but something of the sort takes place, and it enables
us to visualize how habits are formed, from the psycho-physiological
point-of-view.
Prof. William James, in his “Psychology,” has laid down certain maxims,
which are very helpful, and may be applied in daily life to our own
advantage. These maxims, in brief, are:
(1) _Make your nervous system your ally instead of your enemy._ This
is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the
interest of the fund. For this we must make automatic and habitual, as
early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against
the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us,
as we should guard against the plague. We should, then, take care to
launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible
upon any new venture. This will tend to cut a deep initial groove, so
to say.
(2) _Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely
rooted in your life._ Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of
string which one is carefully winding-up; a single slip will undo more
than a great many turns will wind up again. _Continuity_ of training is
the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right.
(3) _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. It is not
in the moment of their forming, but in the moment of their producing
_motor effects_, that resolves and aspirations communicate the new
“set” to the brain.
Much dispute has arisen as to the best way to break a bad
habit--whether to abolish it at once, or to taper it off by
degrees--thus avoiding “shock.” The consensus of opinion seems to be
that it is far better to break off at once, _providing one can stand
it_. Similarly, the abrupt acquisition of a new habit is best, _if_
there is a real possibility of carrying it out. If you set yourself an
impossible task, and fail to carry it out, this will leave you weaker
than before. But this is not necessary; slight tasks will serve just as
useful purposes as more difficult ones in the formation of new habits.
And the ability to perform unpleasant tasks is the test of character!
“The faculty must be kept alive by a little gratuitous exercise every
day.”
According to the habits we form--lazy or industrious, bad or good--our
life, success, happiness, destiny depend. An object-lesson of some
sort--a book, a play, a living example--will perhaps modify and color
our whole lives. I cannot do better than to conclude this chapter by
a quotation from William James, which I personally read when about
nineteen years of age, and which served to influence the whole course
of my life. It may, perhaps, have the same effect upon others, and it
is with the hope that it will, that I call attention to it here. James
says:
“Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education,
whatever the line of it may be. If he keep faithfully busy each hour
of the working day, he may safely leave the final result to itself. He
can with perfect certainty count on waking up, some fine morning, to
find himself one of the competent ones of his generation, in whatever
pursuit he may have singled out. Silently, between all the details of
his business, the _power of judging_ in that class of matter will have
built itself up within him as a possession that will never pass away.
Young people should know this truth in advance. The ignorance of it has
probably engendered more discouragement and faint-heartedness in youths
embarking on arduous careers than all other causes put together.”