Good habits and bad habits

 

We all have some good things that people really like about us, and we also have a few things that people don’t like about us. These are the habits of ours that make us good sometimes and make us bad sometimes. For a student, the habits are what make the judgement about how he/she might perform later in the world. Hence it becomes extremely important to develop good habits and get rid of bad habits. No matter how we become as good as we can, the other people will find a way to misjudge you and blame you for your habits. In this case, you can do nothing to stop them from thinking like this as this is their mind that is making false assumptions about you. So it is better to ignore these people.

When someone is a school-going student, then that person develops a few good habits for which he is appreciated and a few bad habits in himself, which no one likes about that person. Here are some of the bad habits that someone can get struck during childhood. For example, many children have the habit of stealing money from their elder’s pockets. This becomes a bad habit in the future as the habit of stealing money from childhood continues and takes this bad habit to a totally different level—close to stealing from other people, banks or even robbing the banks. Also, it becomes extremely hard to leave this habit as someone has kept on doing it from the past.

Let’s understand with an example. When the sapling is not fully grown, it is easy to relocate it to some other place. But once it is fully grown, then you can’t relocate it and if you want the tree not in the place where it is, the only option left is to cut that tree. It is a similar situation here. When we are young, the habits that we learn are what shape how we are going to perform in the future. And if our elders want us to be disciplined, then childhood is the only time that they can do so; after which there is nothing that they can do, and if they want to discipline us in our adulthood, then it is not possible.

So now that we have seen what bad habits that we can be struck with, then we need to understand that how can we stay away from them. There is actually an extremely simple technique to do this. You just need to ask from yourself, “Is the thing that I am doing well for everyone on this planet?” if you get the answer “yes” then you can go ahead and do that thing. However, if you get the answer as “no,” then don’t do that thing.  And if you go ahead and do that activity, that activity cannot be considered good for the world and the doer has to be punished. Hence if you are thinking of doing something, then first ask this question to yourself and the answer that you get is the confirmation that you should or should not do the thing. Also, try to see the situation by not only your perspective, but also the other person’s perspective. Perspective of that person is what matters the most. If you think only with your perspective, then it can’t be considered good for everyone. But if you see from that perspective of the other person, then you will do what is called a “fair” or an “equal” decision-making.

Apart from the bad habits, there are some things that are good within us and we are appreciated for our efforts in that field. There are some good things that we show to others and they appreciate us for those good things. And if we are consistent enough in doing those good things, then we can turn that good thing into our ambition. Consistency is the other name of a habit. They both mean the same things. When we are consistent towards our work, we develop discipline towards it. When we develop discipline then our mind makes us do that thing forever, even if we don’t want to. An example of the good habit is: helping your elders in whatever way you can.

Let’s say that you mopped the floor to help your mother for her to go to office on time. This is a good habit as this can lead you to think like a mature person does and start doing what you do the best. Also, you will feel good about it that you helped your mother. At another time, if you have found a person who has fainted, and if you help him in getting to the hospital then it will be considered good for everyone and everyone will feel good about you, including yourself. These are some good habits that a student should have.

Once we have had these good habits, then it becomes extremely important to keep those good habits within us so that we can help more and more people in the future. We can retain these good habits only if we want to. Everything that we do depends on us, not anyone else. And so, it is we who bear the consequences, not anyone else. This is the law of Karma—as stated in the Bhagwat Gita. If we are blaming someone else for our circumstance that we have found ourselves in, then it is just a waste of time and sooner or later we will be punished or rewarded for that activity based on the law of Karma. On the other hand, if we have done something good then no matter someone else tries his best to suppress us from getting the rewards of our work, we will get the rewards sooner or later. If we use our time to do the good, then we will get good in return. But if we use our time to do the bad, then we will get bad in return. This is the simple rule or the law of Karma.

Being a student, it is these habits that determine how that student is going to perform in the future. Why is this the case? Well it is because the student’s habits shape the future of that student, as discussed before. So if the student uses his time wisely and only to learn and explore newer things, then he is going in the right direction. But if the student is wasting his time in doing useless things, then he is not going in the right direction and the direction in which he is going has a big tumble on the way. So it becomes extremely important to do some things that take us in that direction which is fruitful, especially as a student.

Consistency is the other name of a habit. If we develop consistency in doing good things, then we will do the thing that is productive, but if we develop consistency in doing bad things then we will do the thing that is negative. The fascinating thing is that we have to struggle a lot more to do good things than to do bad things. It is just like the water from the rivers in the plains is easier to get, but is impure. But the water of the river gushing from the mountain is just a stream, is extremely pure, but is harder to get. Bad habits are like that water in the rivers of the plains and good habits are like that water in the mountains. The water in the mountains is harder to get, but is purer than the water of the same river found in the plains. Similarly, good habits are harder to get but are better and more rewarding than the bad habits.