20th April 2010
Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.
Spanish proverb
One question I encounter in my time management programme is: how do I overcome the habit of smoking, drinking, and excessive eating etc. Many people also ask me how to get into the habit if regularly exercising, dieting etc. When I do programmes for parents and school children, I am asked the usual question: how to develop reading habit among children?
It may appear to be a very simple question, but if you think about it deeply you will appreciate that we are controlled by our habits. We are what we are by what we do regularly. Success is a result of consistency and continuous effort.
We feel restless to get rid of a bad habit overnight and we are eager to get into a new habit overnight. But we should understand that what took several years to form cannot be removed overnight. As it came so it should go.
Stephen Covey, the most popular trainer and consultant speaks about the formation of habit in his book `The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People'. He says that the following issues are relevant with reference to habits:
· Knowledge
· Skill
· Desire
For example, if you want to develop reading habit in your child, first you should teach how to select a book, how to read, what to read (knowledge). Then you should teach the child how well to read (skill) by teaching speed reading etc. This alone will not make the child to develop a reading habit. Reading a book is different from reading habit. As I mentioned, habit presupposes consistency. Unless you develop a desire in your child to read, he will not develop a reading habit. You have to `market' the idea of reading by telling what all the child will get by reading.
The same applies to any habit, whether you want to develop a new habit or you want to get out of an existing habit.
N C Sridharan
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