My web was not strong
All it took was summer for my fledgling habits to unravel. Why is that? In gathering quotes for this post, I came across one that says a habit starts out as fragile as a spider’s web, but eventually it is stronger than steel. And so I start again.
Why Habits Are Important
Habits are important. Up to 90 percent of our everyday behavior is based on habit. Nearly all of what we do each day, every day, is simply habit. Jack D. Hodge
This habituated behavior is discussed in previous posts, Living on Autopilot: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and What would the world be like if habits didn’t exist? It only makes sense that given how much of our lives are run on autopilot, we inventory our habits. Not only should we seek to purge our bad habits but also the neutral ones that are rooting us in place. Often it’s the simple things we don’t do that trip us up.
True Story
A week or so ago we’d had a hard frost. Snow was predicted for the next day so I wanted to get a final picture of the sunflowers that had bloomed continuously through the summer. We also had a few tomato plants among the sunflowers. They were done and so to get a better picture, I pulled the wire cages that supported the tomatoes out and left them scattered on the ground.
After dark, I went out to cut the sunflowers and bring them into the house. Cutting across the yard from the deck, I chose a different route on the way back. A huge bouquet of sunflowers in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, I did not see the tomato cages that I’d left strewn on the ground. I fell like a tree.
As I fell, there was that moment of ‘what the heck grabbed my legs’. Hitting the ground, I broke the fall with my forearms and was acutely aware of the scissors still clutched in my hand resting alongside my head. Lesson learned was how my habit of leaving things until later could have taken my eye – or worse.
Sometimes, a habit seems harmless. Until it’s not.
Successful People
Read any biography of a successful person and it will discuss the habits that led to their success. The following four quotes reiterate the role that habits have in finding success in life. It’s important to say that success is subjective. But regardless of what you want to accomplish or what you want your life to look like, habits will help you get there.
Successful people are simply those with successful habits. – Brian Tracy
I can predict the long-term outcome of your success if you show me your daily habits. John Maxwell
Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out. -Robert Collier
Success is hastened or delayed by one’s habits. It is not your passing inspirations or brilliant ideas so much as your everyday mental habits that control your life. Paramahansa Yogananda
Habits define character
Habits control our actions and our responses. And it is these things that define us. The good news is, you can change those aspects of your character that are limiting you. It’s a matter of choice.
Habits change into character. Ovid
Your character is the harvest of your habits. – Adrian Rogers
Your character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character. – Stephen Covey
Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. -Benjamin Franklin
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. John Dryden
Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny. – Gandhi
WHAT IS HABIT?
Habit is the map or blueprint which the mental path follows. Napoleon Hill
Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do). -Stephen R. Covey
Habit is a cable; we weave a thread each day, and at last we cannot break it. ~ Horace Mann
Habits are never-ending goals, if you think about it. They have no deadline and no end point. They are casual daily activities like brushing your teeth or combing your hair. Zoe McKey
HOW TO FORM HABITS
The quotes below talk about:
- Setting goals
- Identifying that one thing that you can do differently each day
- Choosing actions that support success
- Changing your thought patterns and attitude
- Repeat, repeat, repeat until your habit becomes stronger than steel
You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. John C. Maxwell
The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. -Albert Einstein
Choices are at the root of every one of your results. Each choice starts a behavior that over time becomes a habit. Darren Hardy
The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting and achieving goals. Og Mandino
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks, but I do fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. -Bruce Lee
Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be but as a spider’s web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel. – Tyron Edwards
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude. – Colin Powell
The good thing about a habit is that even though the strand may be fragile or even broken, it can be repaired and strengthened through goal setting and repetition.
Don’t give up. You can do it.
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