You CAN Create Healthy Habits!
Humans are creatures of habit. Unfortunately, good habits are hard to form and easy to lose, and bad habits are easy to form and hard to get rid of. Why is that?
For the most part, good habits go against entropy, which is the natural movement away from order and toward disorder. To go against entropy requires an expenditure of energy, and that causes a measure of distress or discomfort.
In contrast, bad habits usually result in pleasure, at least short term. Now we humans are motivated pretty much by just two things: the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain (and more strongly by the avoidance of pain).
Habits are extremely important, because our habits shape our character, and our character shapes our destiny. The famous English poet, John Dryden said it another way …
“We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”
A fuller view of the place of habits is contained in this quote, the origin of which seems to be up for debate: “Our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions, our actions become our habits, our habits determine our character, our character determines our destiny.”
So it would appear that our habits are linked to our destiny. We all want a healthy and joy-filled destiny, right? So, consider this …
Our destiny in this life and the next, begins with our thoughts. 
Wise people have said that you get what you think about the most. And what you think about is really under your own control. So, logically, our destiny is under our control, and healthy habits fall in the middle of that chain.
It all begins with what kind of a person you see yourself as. When you decide to see yourself as a successful, self-controlled, powerful, effective, valuable, worthwhile, healthy individual, you will be much more likely to act that way. You can decide who you truly are.
You have to decide what it is in life that you truly want the most. What really drives you deep down? What do you really want, and WHY do you want it? That is the place from which your motivation, passion, and enthusiasm comes from to make you think, speak, and act in a certain way. That will enable you to act differently from how you are now, if you have not yet acquired your desired habits.
Knowing WHY you want a certain habit will draw you and empower you to make that change, especially if you can link a large amount of pain to NOT changing, and a large amount of pleasure with forming the new habit.
So get started right now with becoming more aware of your thoughts, and more importantly, begin thinking about what it is that you really really want in life and why you want it. Then get your thoughts in alignment with that. Good luck!
Dr. William Epperly, Fellow American Academy of Family Practice
Fellow American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy
Member of Christian Medical and Dental Society.
