VEHICLES

 

A few weeks back I wrote about thoughts being the wheels upon which we ride the journey of life; as I was wrapping up the month of April, I came across a notebook I used back then in my service year and then it opened me up to an issue relating to this that is worth sharing.  

You see, life doesn’t just happen to us, it is the product of largely three forces that we are highly responsible for – thoughts, habits and choices. Our ability to navigate these productively, and respond to them truly will not only make our lives easy but will enable us to live life purposefully.

So what are habits? In his book, James Clear defined habits as "the smallest decisions you make and actions you performed every day". Duke University carried out research and concluded that habits account for about 40 per cent of our behaviours on any given day. I see habits as those daily insignificant actions that are automatically ingrained upon our hearts that become our unconsciously displayed routines without a second thought. 

The task of this piece is to give you a fresh prodding and enable you to assess your habits in line with the person you want to be and where you envisioned yourself in the future. Your daily choices sum up to form your habits and your habits, in turn, are invariably the determinants of your future. Your future therefore cannot in any way be different from the habits you are forming and exhibiting today. 

Successful people have successful and good habits. They are not only constantly installing new and productive habits that will enable them to achieve their goals in their lives but destroying and replacing toxic ones as well. There is no quick-fix-it formula to arriving at greatness, it takes focused attention, personal discipline and lots of energy in developing, installing and exhibiting the right habit towards all situations at all times. Your habits will determine the quality of your life. 

Your habits are the vehicles with which you will or not arrive at your destiny in life. With the right habits, you will attract the right company in the journey of your life and with bad habits, you will break down on the way, attract bad company and chase away the good ones. A bad habit stinks and can be alluded to a broken down vehicle, unless it is being fixed, it cannot move or take you or anyone else anywhere. 

Some have bad eating habits, toxic relational habits, poor habits towards learning and self-development. Some don’t even give any thoughts to their habits at all and that is pathetic. How are your habits? Are your habits the right vehicles you need to travel this life and arrive at your desired destination? 

I will like us to get practical with this now; as always, write down those bad habits you know need changing, do not pity yourself as your failure to face this honestly will spell disaster for your life in the future. Write down the ways you think or feel you need to change these bad habits, it is okay not to have it all figured out now and it is alright if you need help as well. Now give yourself a time frame on when you need to effect these changes and do not forget to hold yourself accountable. 

For emphasis sake, let me say the above again in a different way. Identify your toxic habits that need changing, define new ones you need to develop to replace the bad ones, set a time frame for yourself on when you need to destroy the bad habits and install the new ones. Every new habit you exhibit for 90 days becomes automatically ingrained in your routine. 

The irony is that developing and installing new good habits takes time and persistent consistency while developing bad habits takes virtually nothing at all but will eventually cost you almost everything meaningful in life.  When it comes to addressing bad habits in your life, please do not be kind to yourself, this is because they may look innocent now but the results of our bad habits usually do not show up until much later in life. No bad habit is too small to attend to and change with a deep sense of urgency. 

This piece may not capture everything about habits as it is just to reawaken you to the need to have good and fruitful habits as the vehicles you need to travel in life. (However, there are books such as “Atomic Habits” By James Clear, “Attitude is everything” by Keith Harell and “Power of Focus” by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewit that will give you a great read.) The bottom line here is that good habits are great vehicles you need to travel this life with whereas bad ones get you stuck. 

Develop the habit of changing your bad habits daily and replacing them with good and beneficial ones. Life is a school and a learning process, keep learning from available materials and people who have successful habits, usually leave clues. Work at refining your good habits, skills and talents. Do not be satiated as there is always another level waiting for you. 

Again, how are your habits? Are they the right vehicles that will take you through the journey of life to arrive where you want to? If there is any right time to work on your habits is now. 

Thank you for reading

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