Motivation: Will power to change habits
 Kishore C.S. 
August 2001
 
What do you want to change?
 
Many of us have developed some habits over years. Due to various factors we develop some good habits and also some minor bad habits. Minor bad habits include smoking, drinking too much coffee or tea or similar things. Sometimes we feel these are bad habits that we can give up whenever we want. I recollect this quote/joke about giving up smoking:
 
"Giving up smoking is very easy, I have done it more than 100 times"
 
Though this is said in a lighter vein, it conveys truth that giving up bad habits is not so easy. It takes will power, determination to take a step and adhere to it. I have met lot of people who have given up habits like this. 
 
Making a Resolution
 
Let me illustrate a small example from my life:
 
When I was working in Ramco, we used to get coffee served to our desks twice a day and thrice a day, if you happened to work late. People say, drinking coffee is one of the ways of relaxing yourself. It will increase your effectiveness. But we also know that coffee contains nicotine and too much coffee is not good for health. I used to wonder whether I should continue taking all those servings which made my total intake of coffee up to 4 times per day. There were times I thought I should give up drinking coffee. I didn't take this seriously. There were times I was upset when coffee is served late and eagerly looked forward to it. It became an addiction. 
 
It happened so that one day I was working as usual. Usually coffee was served any time between 2.30 -3 pm. I was absorbed in my work and at around 3.15 pm I asked myself have I taken coffee? I looked around and found that I did drink my coffee which was served to me and I found evidence of the empty cup in my trash can. Every thing happened so mechanically that I didn't notice, when I got coffee and when I finished drinking it. At this time I felt very bad. If I am doing something for the sake of doing it, without realizing any benefit out of it - Why do it? At this particular moment I was so ashamed of myself, that I took a decision to stop drinking coffee at office and stick to my daily morning cofee alone. From that day onwards I didn't drink coffee at office. After few days, I found that I didn't miss coffee at all. 
 
Lessons Learned:
 
If you ask me, was it a great achievement? I would say yes, because this particular "resolving not to drink coffee" was small, but had significant impact on me. 
 
I learned that if I have will I can stick to my decision. It served an example for myself whenever I wanted to give up something else. If I can do it once, I can do it many times. From this experience onwards I encountered a few more situations where I took similar "Don't" decisions and I stood by them. It helped not only in small decisions but in some big decisions also. It strengthened my will power, determination. It improved my self-discipline. It made me more confident of my decisions. It made me think that I can "Change" If I WISH it. 
 
It is not to say, that I am only person who has achieved this, I know of many people who took such decisions and stood by them. I know how proud I feel whenever someone asks me "how many times do you drink coffee?" and I reply "Just once in a day" and see a surprise on their face. I want to remind you of such similar experiences in your life which you should be proud of.
 
"Where there is a WILL there is a WAY"