Habit: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. (Dictionary.com)
<habits make life easier because they allow us to act without having to first consider whether or how to act. Take brushing your teeth for example. Most people don’t consider how they feel about brushing their teeth. They have decided that brushing their teeth is a good idea and just do it. Brushing is a habit.
When habits aren’t developed, actions often don’t occur. Take exercising regularly for example. For many people, exercising isn’t a habit. It is something that requires a conscious decision. Many people consider how they are feeling before they go for a walk or if they have time to workout at the gym. Because exercising isn’t a habit, they have to think about it and so exercising doesn’t happen often or at all! Once going for a walk or going to the gym becomes a habit like brushing their teeth, they exercise more often.
But habits can also be self-defeating.
Because habits represent actions done with little thought, habits often involve thoughtless actions. I’ve watched people turn on the faucet and brush their teeth (and shave too) with the water running the entire time. Water, one of humanity’s most precious resources, running down the drain. Water, one of humanity’s most precious resources, wasted. Consider two other things we value, gasoline and money. Can you imagine anyone pumping gasoline into the gutter or throwing money into a shredder? Yet isn’t that how we treat water?
I think one of the most difficult things for people to do is to break old habits. Some people brush their teeth or shave with the water running the whole time; how did they develop this habit? What would it take for someone who brushes or shaves this way to break this habit and turn the water off while brushing or shaving?
If you brush or shave this way, consider the senseless waste of what you are doing and change your ways. If you know someone who brushes or shaves this way, ask them why they leave the water running. Maybe all they need to break the habit is to be made aware of the senseless waste of what they are doing!
