Assembly: Habits

abits

I once had a teacher who would say to us, in Latin (one of several languages he spoke), “Usus est Tyrannus”: Your routine is your master. That is the topic of my assembly today.

Aristotle said that what we repeatedly do, we become.

He explained this by saying:

“The things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building, and lyreplayers by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

Habit is stronger than wisdom!

So can we change our habits?

My morning routine:

shower, breakfast, tea, dress, tea, tie, hair

One thing out of order and I have a bad day. That’s not a joke.

Now, you might think that sounds boring, and it would be if someone else had invented that system. But because I invented it, I consent to it. That means I am only stood here right now because I choose to be. That’s not boring!  That’s freedom! 

So we started by saying our routine was our master, and indeed it is, but we have a choice. We can either decide on our habits, or let our habits decide for us.

You might have gotten in some good habits last year. Keep them up. Realise that they are probably the most valuable things you possess. More valuable than the phone in your pocket.

expectations about Uniform,Homework etc...you can probably imagine.)) expecting...((Here I seT

But as corny as it sounds, doing the right thing IS its own reward.

The person you are when nobody is looking, that's who you really are.

Last year, you might have gotten in some bad habits. It happens. But that doesn’t mean it can carry on. Don't think you can get away with that. If it does carry on, like Aristotle says, you will only be led further and further into bad habits and, ultimately, and this is neither joke nor exaggeration, you will become a bad person.

In fact, the Greek word "Ethike" from which we get Ethics refers to "Habits".

I leave you with a quote from Aristotle again.

“It makes no small difference, then, whether we form habits of one kind or another from our very youth; it makes a very great difference or, rather, all the difference.”

References

Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics