Motivation: Will power to change habits
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"