Qualities: HABIT

Here's the solution to your New Year's Resolutions:

Habits gather by unseen degrees. As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
––John Dryden, English Poet (1631-1700)

95% of everything that you think, do, feel and achieve is the result of habit.
––Brian Tracy

A nail is driven out by another nail, habit is overcome by habit.
––Erasmus

Could the youth but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habit, they would give more heed to their conduct while in their plastic state.
­William James

Have you ever thought how much energy is saved by having habits? Without the impetus of habit, half the work is just getting started. A person of many good habits is a very efficient machine, cruising effortlessly through life.
––John Roberts

Quality-building habits can be boring: same old thing, again and again. The secret is to set goals, measure progress and reward results with the new things that make life exciting. In the brain, new variations of neuron connections and strength push aside the old, modernizing the guiding force. We have multitudes of similar habits, suited to specific known situations. But, each can be modified or replaced. There is an entire library to guide our lives without having to learn again with each new minute of life.

Habits, both good and bad, are formed and strengthened over a long period of time. The become second nature, and are difficult to break once formed. They are like stalactites in a cave, made from the mineral residue of a billion drops of water. Strong habits can be broken, but the process is usually difficult and sometimes traumatic. The wise person recognizes that a bad habit is forming, and kills the repetition before it becomes more difficult to break.

The enemy of habit is procrastination. Anyone can form habits with the repetition of pleasure; the things that are hard to do at first are the foundation of the habits that are the most difficult to form. It is easy to become adicted to nicotine, but difficult to stop smoking. But, the more you do them, the easier they become. If you associate those difficult practices with pleasurable connections in the brain, they begin to make the experience easier and happier.

TIP: Building good habits is more than just waiting for life to set opportunities in front of you. As with most of the qualities in this book, an organized plan makes it easier, more successful and more fun. It takes discipline to do things regularly, at the expense of other activity. Review the list of habits and note those that are best enhanced by habit-forming experiences.

Recommended Reading:
James Claiborn, PhD, The Habit Change Workbook: How to Break Bad Habits and Form Good Ones. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2001.
Jim Canterucci, Personal Brilliance: Mastering the Everyday Habits That Create a Lifetime of Success. New York: AMACOM, 2005.
Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.