Slaves of habit
We
are all slaves of habit, aren’t we? Good or bad, we pick up habits early on in
our lives and then allow them to enslave us. This might be the reason why we
give so much of importance to the formative years. Once we get in to a habit in
those years, we almost refuse to come out of them.
From the smallest of things like
sleeping on the right side of the bed to taking the central seat at the dining
table, we become creatures of habit. We become so addicted to our habits that
we begin to think of it as our identity. Haven’t some of us told quite often
that “I can’t start my morning without a tea” or “I can’t do anything without
postponing it, even if it is for an hour, I am like that”!
By becoming habitual, we are
limiting ourselves from the endless opportunities of Life. I for one, whenever went
to a restaurant, used to order only Dragon chicken, much to the dismay of my
friendsJ. Then one day, I ordered Lasagne
and then it dawned on me as to how stupid it is on my part to refuse exploring
the variety of food available at my disposal.
When we allow ourselves to be
prisoners of habits, we miss out an opportunity to find out how things look
from another perspective. It is like refusing to look at the other side of the
coin. We may never find out how different Life is when approached in a
different way. It might be good, bad or even ugly. But it will be different for
certain.
If stuck
to doing things in a singular way, we also risk stagnating. When we meet someone
after a long time and they say “You haven’t changed at all”, it can be a good
thing. They might be saying that we haven’t lost ourselves in the madness of
Life. But if they mean “You haven’t grown at all” then what is the point of
living itself?
It is said animals love certainty. They need a
pattern to follow to make semblance of their existence. This is the reason why
every single day of an animal’s life turns out to be in the exact same fashion.
Apart from the lack of hunting and defending skills, this is also a reason an
animal which grows up in a zoo finds it difficult to survive in the wild. They
are just not ready to look at Life beyond the pattern of sleep-wake up-eat-sleep.
We all know Life at times, is wild in the true sense of
the word. Getting ourselves accustomed to the confinements of a few habits will
only make it difficult for us to survive its wilderness. Arun Babu
It is like refusing to look at the other side of the coin...sometimes its a taboo to look at the other side of the coin..and sometimes I actually dont bother to look at all..All in the name of wilderness ;)
ReplyDeletehaha... all in d name of wilderness it is :)
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