Habit
Media
Part of The Young Citizen: The Magazine for Young People
- Title
- Habit
- Year
- 1941
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- 290 THE YOUNG CITIZEN AucusT, 1941 CHARACTER AND CITIZENSHIP SECTION HABIT THE ORDINARY person thinks of smoking, chewing gum, or personal peculiarities such as holding one's head on the side, as habits. He does not think of walking, skating, and catching a ball as habits, nor of the movements of his eyes in reading, or of his hands in playing a piano. But these are all habits. · becom'e permanently settled upon us. To break up a habit mean·s a complete change in the nervous system, and this cannot be brought about only by a peni tent attitude of mind. It is important to remember that ·habits originat�e not only in conscious effort to do new things, but in conscious and un conscious limitation of what the child sees and hears about him. One of the main businesses of life is the formation of correct habits, for habits are the substance· of conduct and charHabit enters so largely into man's daily activities that it would be impossible for him to rexist without it. He could not . communicate with a friend without . making use of the habits of enunciation or writing that he formed with great difficulty in childhood. If he had not made . acte�. !0 'each , � £ us co�es the day when it a habit, he might be occupied a�l day we reahze the law of human souls. that in dressing and undressing himself, for · we prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the fastening of a button or the ·combing reiterated choice of good or evil that of his hair would be as difficult as when gradually determines character." he first tried it as a child. He would, moreover, be completely tired ·out from his exertions. But habit enables him to do these things speedily and accurately, yet almost unconsciously, _and so leave his mind free for other matters. THINGS TO THINK ABOUT 1. Makre a list of at least ten habits; more if possible. 2. Why are habits important? 3. How is a habit formed? 4. Are there good habits? Bad habits? 5. When, especially, should good habits be formed? Why then? · 6. Is it possible to break up a bad habit? How? Habit formation has been likened to the making ot a path across the field. Af tler the first traveler has trodden down the grass, the next is likely to follow in the same route, and so on until presently the grass is wholly worn away and ·everyone thereafter follows the beaten path. In the same way in the animal organ7· Do you have any bad habits? If so, make a list of them. ism, nervous currents tend to employ those pathways which hav� been prev iously .established, and thus many of our habits formed when we are young-such as posture, personal cleanliness, manners, and standards of dress, enunciation and tone of voice, and even moral habits8. Why not begin 1·iglzt now to break up your bad habits? 9. Why not begin right now to form some good habits-which you do not have? I 0. Ask your t�acher at school to talk to your class about habits-good and bad.