No time or No Habit

Recently I was reading an article in the Chinese Newspaper; it was a column that was written by a famous author in Taiwan. She was talking about the most commonly used excuse by modern day man. “Not enough time.”

Ever notice that, we use this as an excuse for anything that we do not want to do, want to do but do not feel like doing, know it is beneficial to do it but do not feel like doing and many more.

The most common example cited is exercising. Deep in everybody’s mind, we all know that exercising is beneficial to our health. Our government has been trying to promote healthy lifestyle through exercising and diets. But most of us would use the excuse, “Not Enough Time”

But have you ever wondered how come then you have time to watch TV, play computer games, chatting with friends over phone and so on and so forth.

What I wanted to share in this entry is the point that the author is trying to bring across and that is, it is not that we do not have time but it is because we did not develop a habit for these beneficial habits like exercising and leisure reading.

I have met many people during seminars and training that I attend, a lot of people have great difficulty to develop these habits. I can understand the difficulty because it seems to be a fight between the devil and angel. Initially when I was trying to create a habit to exercise on every Sunday morning, I can tell you the angel in me is like fighting a losing battle because the only reason that he can come up with is that I would be healthy and enjoy beautiful sceneries the world can offer (people who travels in China would know what I mean). These benefits that the angel offers are great and I love it. But there is one problem and that is they are not immediate enough for me to make me ‘beg’ for exercise.

But the thousand and one reason the devil come up with are so tremendous and the benefits are immediate like, “Ah come on, Sunday is a time to rest and you need it because of the hectic week.” or “Alamak, later going out with your friends, and your favourite girl is going as well, you do not want to look tired right?”

So how do I develop the habit which I did successfully? Well speed is of the essence here, Haha! Every Sunday morning, when the angel starts to speak, I would say “YES, let’s do it!!” and I would as fast and I could, put on my gear and rush to the park where I usually jog. Once I am there, no matter what the devil say, I would say “Heck with it lah, since I am here, might as well run.” Going back home, change my sport gear to sleeping gear now would seem to tiring.

To develop my reading habit was easy because as I said before, I have good parents who encourage reading, although now they seem to regret a bit because of my large collections of books now. Haha! I always carry a book with me whenever possible so that no time is wasted, time in between waiting and changing buses.

So I really quite agree with the author about her point, and that is it is not that we do not have enough time but it is because we did not have the habit. Below is a phrase I find it meaningful. It was shown on a TV show that was promoting entrepreneurship in Singapore.

“Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character.”

Cheers!