Habit!

This was a very interesting clue when we were young (er!)

If you take the first letter of this word then a bit remains, if you take two then bit remains and if you take three then it remains!

The answer of course was Habit! And just like the spelling, the meaning also stands testimonial to the fact that if you have a habit then it does remain!

So it is better to develop a good one!

But (putting a but in the middle of the blog is my habit!) did you know that the root of this word was related to clothes!?

The word habit is pulled from the Latin words habere, which means “have, consist of,” and habitus, which means “condition, or state of being.”

It also is derived from the French word habit (French pronunciation abi), which means clothes! In the 13th century, the word habit first just referred to clothing. The meaning then progressed to the more common use of the word, which is “acquired mode of behavior.”!

One of the best books specifically about habits and good habits is Atomic habits by James Clear.

In this he states how you must have demarcated zones for your habits! Basically which means that once a habit is ingrained then it is difficult to change! Like how you can’t eat in the bedroom and you must never sleep in the living room! When this becomes ingrained then unless you decide to sleep and go to the bedroom, you will not sleep!

One of the first things in the novel was on making the habits obvious! One of the first things to do is to make a scorecard on your current habits and classify them as good, bad or neutral!

Habit formation is the process by which a behavior, through regular repetition, becomes automatic or habitual. This is modeled as an increase in automaticity with the number of repetitions, up to an asymptote which is a plateau.

This process of habit formation can be slow but when it is established then it is difficult to change! Of course with some limits it has been found that the average time for anyone to reach the asymptote of automaticity or formation of habit was 66 days with a range of 18–254 days!

It has thus been suggested that if you want to change your bad habits to good one then you must adhere to some rules!

There are apparently four basic effect and response to any habit and if you want to change your habit then you must modify those!

The first is Craving which makes the habit attractive so try to make the habit unattractive! Second is when the habit is obvious so your cue is to make it hidden, the third is that bad habits are easy to learn or get so try to make it difficult! Finally bad habits are satisfying and rewarding so you can try to make them unsatisfying or unrewarding!

Now these are the simple answers on how to do it! It all depends on how you actually get it done! The intent and the persistence is the prime factor which makes a good habit stick. Of course man (or woman for that matter!) is a creature of habit and one chief habit of everyone is to give free advice which is so easy to give but difficult to follow!

But some habits like sketching or blogging can be good provided you have time and good intention! A legend with great intention which was fulfilled is Dr Viswanathan Shanta!

Do read about her!

Shubh ratri!