If we had to think of each step we took as we walked down the street, it would take us a long time to walk even one block. It would also take a great deal of time if we had to think carefully of each letter we made as we wrote our own names. We learn to walk and to write so well that walking and writing are habits.
We depend on a large number of habits when we dress in the morning. Tying bows, buttoning buttons, snapping snaps, and zipping zippers are all habits. Using knives and forks and spoons as we eat is a habit. Brushing our teeth after meals is a habit. Turning off lights when we leave a room and waiting for a green light at street corners are also habits. Our lives would not be at all as they are now if there were no such thing as habit and we had to think carefully about everything we do.
We form a habit by doing the same thing over and over again. But want and need have a great deal to do with forming habits. Walking would not become a habit if we felt no need or desire to walk.
Although habits are very important to us and most of them may be good, we may have some bad habits. Many people have formed the habit of standing or sitting in bad positions. Some people have the habit of biting their fingernails. Some have the habit of paying no attention to traffic lights at street crossings. Some people have formed bad eating habits. A long list of bad habits could easily be made.
If you are learning to do anything new, it is a good plan to make sure you are doing it the right way. It is usually easier to form a good habit than to break a bad one.
