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The Power of Concentration
CONCENTRATION CAN OVERCOME BAD HABITS
LESSON IX.
Habits make or break us to a far greater extent than
we like to admit. Habit is both a powerful enemy and wonderful ally
of concentration. You must learn to overcome habits which are injurious
to concentration, and to cultivate those which increase it.
The large majority of people are controlled by their habits and
are buffeted around by them like waves of the ocean tossing a piece
of wood. They do things in a certain way because of the power of
habit. They seldom ever think of concentrating on why they do them
this or that way, or study to see if they could do them in a better
way. Now my object in this chapter is to get you to concentrate
on your habits so you can find out which are good and which are
bad for you. You will find that by making a few needed changes you
can make even those that are not good for you, of service; the good
habits you can make much better.
The first thing I want you to realize is that all habits are governed
consciously or unconsciously by the will. Most of us are forming
new habits all the time. Very often, if you repeat something several
times in the same way, you will have formed the habit of doing it
that way. But the oftener you repeat it the stronger that habit
grows and the more deeply it becomes embedded in your nature. After
a habit has been in force for a long time, it becomes almost a part
of you, and is therefore hard to overcome. But you can still break
any habit by strong concentration on its opposite.
"All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass
of habits—practical, emotional, and intellectual—systematically
organized, for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward
our destiny whatever the latter may be."
We are creatures of habits, "imitators and copiers of our past
selves." We are liable to be "bent" or "curved"
as we can bend a piece of paper, and each fold leaves a crease,
which makes it easier to make the fold there the next time. "The
intellect and will are spiritual functions; still they are immersed
in matter, and to every movement of theirs, corresponds a movement
in the brain, that is, in their material correlative." This
is why habits of thought and habits of willing can be formed. All
physical impressions are the carrying out of the actions of the
will and intellect. Our nervous systems are wh at they are today,
because of the way they have been exercised. harvest fields
As we grow older most of us become more and more like automatic
machines. The habits we have formed increase in strength. We work
in our old characteristic way. Your associates learn to expect you
to do things in a certain way. So you see that your habits make
a great difference in your life, and as it is just about as easy
to form good habits as it is bad, you should form only the former.
No one but yourself is responsible for your habits. You are free
to form the habits that you should and if everyone could realize
the importance of forming the right kind of habits what a different
world this would be. How much happier everyone would be. Then all
instead of the few might win success.
Habits are formed more quickly when we are young, but if we have
already passed the youthful plastic period the time to start to
control our habits is right now, as we will never be any younger.
You will find the following maxims worth remembering.
First Maxim:
"We must make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy."
Second Maxim:
"In the acquisition of a new habit as in the leaving off of
an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong
and decided an initiative as possible."
The man that is in the habit of doing the right thing from boyhood,
has only good motives, so it is very important for you that you
concentrate assiduously on the habits that reinforce good motives.
Surround yourself with every aid you can. Don't play with fire by
forming bad habits. Make a new beginning today. Study why you have
been doing certain things. If they are not for your good, shun them
henceforth. Don't give in to a single temptation for every time
you do, you strengthen the chain of bad habits. Every time you keep
a resolution you break the chain that enslaves you.
Third Maxim:
"Never allow an exception to occur till the new habit is securely
rooted in your life." Here is the idea, you never want to give
in, until the new habit is fixed else you undo all that has been
accomplished by previous efforts. There are two opposing inclinations.
One wants to be firm, and the other wants to give in. By your will
you can become firm, through repetition. Fortify your will to be
able to cope with any and all opposition.
Fourth Maxim:
"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."
To make a resolve and not to keep it is of little value. So by all
means keep every resolution you make, for you not only profit by
the resolution, but it furnishes you with an exercise that causes
the brain cells and physiological correlatives to form the habit
of adjusting themselves to carry out resolutions. "A tendency
to act, becomes effectively engrained in us in proportion to the
uninterrupted frequency with which the actions actually occur, and
the brain `grows' to their use. When a resolve or a fine glow of
feeling is allowed to evaporate without bearing fruit, it is worse
than a chance lost."
If you keep your resolutions you form a most valuable habit. If
you break them you form a most dangerous one. So concentrate on
keeping them, whether important or unimportant, and remember it
is just as important for this purpose to keep the unimportant, for
by so doing you are forming the habit.
Fifth Maxim:
"Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous
exercise every day."
The more we exercise the will, the better we can control our habits.
"Every few days do something for no other reason than its difficulty,
so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not
unnerved or untrained to stand the test. Asceticism of this sort
is like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods. The
tax does him no good at the time, and possibly may never bring him
a return, but if the fire does come, his having paid it will be
his salvation from ruin. So with the man who has daily insured himself
to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volation, and self-denial
in unnecessary things. "He will stand like a tower when everything
rocks around him and his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like
chaff in the blast."
The young should be made to concentrate on their habits and be made
to realize that if they don't they become walking bundles of injurious
habits. Youth is the plastic state, and should be utilized in laying
the foundation for a glorious future.
The great value of habit for good and evil cannot be overestimated.
"Habit is the deepest law of human nature." No man is
stronger than his habits, because his habits either build up his
strength or decrease it.
Why We Are Creatures of Habits. Habits have often been called a
labor-saying invention, because when they are formed they require
less of both mental and material strength. The more deeply the habit
becomes ingrained the more automatic it becomes. Therefore habit
is an economizing tendency of our nature, for if it were not for
habit we should have to be more watchful. We walk across a crowded
street; the habit of stopping and looking prevents us from being
hurt. The right kind of habits keeps us from making mistakes and
mishaps. It is a well known fact that a chauffeur is not able to
master his machine safely until he has trained his body in a habitual
way. When an emergency comes he instantly knows what to do. Where
safety depends on quickness the operator must work automatically.
Habits mean less risk, less fatigue, and greater accuracy.
"You do not want to become a slave to habits of a trivial nature.
For instance, Wagner required a certain costume before he could
compose corresponding parts of his operas. Schiller could never
write with ease unless there were rotten apples in the drawer of
his desk from which he could now and then obtain an odor which seemed
to him sweet. Gladstone had different desks for his different activities,
so that when he worked on Homer he never sat among habitual accompaniments
of his legislative labors."
In order to overcome undesirable habits, two things are necessary.
You must have trained your will to do what you want it to do, and
the stronger the will the easier it will be to break a habit. Then
you must make a resolution to do just the opposite of what the habit
is. Therefore one habit must replace another. If you have a strong
will, you can tenaciously and persistently concentrate on removing
the bad habit and in a very short time the good habit will gain
the upper hand. I will bring this chapter to a close by giving Doctor
Oppenheim's instructions for overcoming a habit:
"If you want to abolish a habit, and its accumulated circumstances
as well, you must grapple with the matter as earnestly as you would
with a physical enemy. You must go into the encounter with all tenacity
of determination, with all fierceness of resolve—yea, even
with a passion for success that may be called vindictive. No human
enemy can be as insidious, so persevering, as unrelenting as an
unfavorable habit. It never sleeps, it needs no rest.
"It is like a parasite that grows with the growth of the supporting
body, and, like a parasite, it can best be killed by violent separation
and crushing.
When life is stormy and all seems against us, that is when we often
acquire wrong habits, and it is then, that we have to make a gigantic
effort to think and speak as we should; and even though we may feel
the very reverse at that moment the tiniest effort will be backed
up by a tremendous Power and will lift us to a realization never
felt before. It is not in the easy, contented moments of our life
that we make our greatest progress, for then it requires, no special
effort to keep in tune. But it is when we are in the midst of trials
and misfortunes, when we think we are sinking, being overwhelmed,
then it is important for us to realize that we are linked to a great
Power and if we live as we should, there is nothing that can occur
in life, which could permanently injure us, nothing can happen that
should disturb us. So always remember you have within you unlimited
power, ready to manifest itself in the form which fills our need
at the moment. If, when we have something difficult to solve, we
would be silent like the child, we can get the inspiration when
it comes; we will know how to act, we will find there is no need
to hurry or disturb ourselves, that it is always wiser to wait for
guidance from within, than to act on impulse from Without.
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