Good Habits
Essay # 1
Good habits are essential for a person to – lead a disciplined life. It is very easy to fall into bad habits when life becomes dull. Good habits are therefore important if we wish to succeed in life.
The great men of this world have led simple lives and followed good habits. An old saying comes to mind in this connection:
Early to bed and early to rise
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise:
We, like children, should work hard at our studies and indulge in useful hobbies too. We should eat good, wholesome food and take sufficient physical exercise. We should learn to be obedient and respectful to our elders and friendly with all our classmates.
Helpfulness, sympathy, and gentleness are also qualities that are appreciated by everyone — we should aim to attain them. Self-discipline helps us in hard times, and we are able to cope with all kinds of difficult situations.
Good habits from childhood stay with us when we grow up and enable us to become better human beings and good citizens.
Good Habits
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Footpaths formed by repeated walking.
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Habits are formed by repeated acts.
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Habits form character, and character decides fate.
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Good habits must be formed in youth.
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Some good habits.
Essay # 2
The footpaths over the fields from village to village have been made by people’s feet. At first, there was no path, and villagers had to find their way as they could. But they naturally took the shortest or the easiest way, they could find, and by constantly walking in this way they trod down the earth and made a track, which at last became a regular field path.
Habits, good or bad, are formed in the same manner, by repetition. The more often we do anything in a special way, the more likely we are to go on doing it in the same way. At last, to do it in that way becomes a habit, just as the earth that is constantly trodden on becomes a path.
Our habits are important because they form our character. Character is just a bundle of habits. Repeated acts form habits that makeup character and our character decides our success or failure in life. “Sow the thought, and reap the act; sow the act, and reap the habit; sow the habit, and reap the character; sow the character, and reap your fate.”
Habits can be good or bad. Good habits form a good character, which means success and happiness; bad habits form a bad character, which means sorrow and failure. So we must see to it that we form only good habits.
The time when habits are formed is when we are young Soft clay can be moulded into any shape we like; but when it is baked into bricks, its shape cannot be changed. The branches of a young tree can be bent; but when the tree is full-grown, they are tough and unyielding. A child’s nature is like the soft clay or the young branch: it can be shaped or bent towards good or evil. But when the boy becomes a man, his habits are formed and his character set, and it is very hard for him to change.
Here are some of the good habits we should form when we are young-telling the truth, doing things at the right time, doing our work thoroughly, obeying parents and teachers, being kind to others, and keeping our thoughts and acts pure.
Good Habits
Essay # 3
People sometimes wonder why it is easy to form bad habits, and so hard to form good habits. Yet the reason is plain. On all occasions, our natural inclination is to take the line of less resistance. It requires at first a distinct effort and a firm hold over ourselves to take the more difficult of two possible courses. For instance, it is easier to lie snug and warm in bed on a cold morning, than to get up early. When we get into a scrape, it is easier to evade punishment by telling a lie, than to face the consequences and tell the truth. When we are in the company of jovial friends, it is hard to face their displeasure and jeers by refusing to drink wine, so we do the easier thing and drink. Now a habit is formed by repetition. Every time we yield to a temptation, it is easier to yield and harder to resist the next time. Every time we take the easier way and lie in bed in the morning, we form a habit of late rising and at last, become lazy. Each time we tell a lie, we make it easier to tell more lies, until we get into the habit of lying. And the more often we drink, strong drink, the more we want to drink, until, it may be, the drink craving holds us, and we become drunkards.
Happily, good habits are formed in the same way. They require effort and determination at first; but every time we resist temptation and do what is, in the long run, wise and good, we make the next struggle less severe; until at last, by persistent repetition, we form a good habit which it would be hard to break even if we wanted to break it. Get into the habit of early rising, and you will not want to lie in bed like lazybones; get into the habit of always telling the truth, and to tell lie will be really difficult; get into the habit of personal cleanliness by regular washing, and you will feel miserable if you miss your bath. As someone has said, “Choose that manner of life which is the best, and custom will render it most delightful”.
Now the character is a bundle of our habits. If we form good habits, we build up a good character; if we allow bad habits to establish themselves, our character becomes bad. For a habit, once formed, is difficult to break; and as our habits get settled, our character becomes set. How important it is, then, that, while we are young and before our habits become so fixed that they cannot be changed, we should see to it that the habits we are forming are only good! When the metal is molten, we can run it into any mould we like; but when it cools and becomes hard, we cannot change its shape. When the tree is young, we can bend its trunk and branches as we please; but when it is old, we cannot change its form without breaking or cutting it down.
