Recently, I was reading “Excuses Begone” by Dr. Wayne Dyer, one of my favourite authors. What struck me was this remarkable observation by Mark Twain
Quote “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.” Unquote
This quote lingered in my mind to the point of restlessness. I made a list of my habits to find an interesting pattern emerged. See if applies you too. My habit pattern showed I jumped from one extreme to another, in an attempt to change one of those habits I didn’t want. The futility of doing so hit home.
From the moment, we are born or maybe even earlier, at the point of conception till this time, we are constantly creating habits. Some of us are smart enough to drop habits automatically, however, most of us keep the entire laundry of habits on standby mode, lest we may require it someday. An example here will help clarify this. Let me cite one from my personal life. I grew up in an average middle class family and as with every family, buying books to read was considered an expensive hobby, hence, street side ragged books were my prized possessions. Asking me for a book to read, was equivalent to inviting my wrath of an animated “No” in the most offensive manner in my teenage years. I mellowed down to more polite and sophisticated ways as I went into my adulthood. In hindsight, the futility of this erstwhile habit struck a chord with me while reading this book.
The choices I made or taught to make were creating my habits and in some case are still creating. Do I live with these or do I have a choice NOW?
Q 1. “Do I have a choice NOW? shifts the game of life to the next level.
The natural tendency created by habitual practices acts as the gravitational force to make one live life on “autopilot”, floating with the wind kind of. However, it is this very gravitational force that needs to break to take life to the next level, by making choices that enable and propels me forward. After all, what is the use of a habit that pulls me down? I am sure you will agree that in any game we play, none of us go into it with a clear intent to “loose it”. Wow, this gets intriguing now with the next question.
Q 2. “Do choices lead to habit or do habit lead to choices?”
Familiar with the Chicken and Egg story, most of us are. I believe they are two sides of the same coin.
This powerful movie called “Inception” by Christopher Nolan struck me really hard. What struck me was the “ability to dream” at level 2 and taking it further to level 3, into the deep recesses of our mind, where all these standby programs keep playing their games which manifest in our lives as an “autopilot” way of living.
I see a correlation in this movie with the way many of us live our lives. On the outer realm, we are what we project to the world. In the inside world, we are in auto-play mode, total oblivion and allowing all kinds of malware to enter. It is ironical to the point of lunacy….
Are we not more aware or unaware of our computer security system and protection features of firewalls and digital certificates in our laptops, tablets and smart phones compared to the greatest system we own, our own mind?
It will sound funny, yet that is the reality. “Mind”, the single most powerful instrument each one of us possess cannot claim it is fully secured.
The movie “Inception” brings this out so beautiful with Leonardo DiCaprio, the best in extraction gets foxed into his own world of “Inception”, until finally he comes back home to live a free man. Did you notice how each architect has to create his or her own totem to help him/her to distinguish reality from illusion?
I stop here with two more powerful questions to ponder over.
Q 3. Am I the architect of my life or am I part of another architect’s dream?
Q 4. Do I have my own #Totem to help me distinguish between reality vs. illusion?
What about you?
– #SJ
*(Images are downloaded from Google)