You Can Remake Yourself

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you must develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”_ Colin Powell

Whether we yearn to learn a new skill, build a great business or raise a pious family, the one thing that will determine our success or failure, more than our intentions and talks, is our actions—our habits. 

We do not become what we wish, we become what we do. That is why the historian, Will Durant once said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” The wellspring of our identity and results is our regular action. 

Therefore, you can make yourself better by acting better. You can make yourself highly productive by doing better, and you can make yourself more generous by giving more, as the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle mentioned long ago that: “To be is to do.” And he expanded his aphorism further when he added: “Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” 

On the concept of habit, Charles Duhigg, the author of, ‘ The Power of Habit’ argues that the key to being more effective, and achieving greater level of success lies in harnessing the power of habit to transform our lives. He reveals to us an interesting point through his book. He writes:

“Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking. They follow the habits they’ve learned.” In other words, champions do ordinary things in an extraordinary way due to the strength of their habits.

However, habits can be a curse or a blessing. Our habits will do us the most good if they are predominantly wholesome but they will do us sufficient harm if they are predominantly poor. 

So, to succeed at anything, according to the habit expert, Charles Duhigg, all you need to do is learn and adopt the right habits. And he contends that there is no such thing as an incorrigible. He argues that with patient effort, anyone can change any unwholesome habit. Duhigg explains:

“Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”

Now, let’s decide to discard our bad habits and create good ones that will add great value to our lives. Ali (RA), the Fourth Rightly Guided Caliph of the Islamic Empire defined this as character development. He said: “Virtue is overcoming one’s (bad) habit.”

In conclusion, if we learn and practice the right habits, it is only a matter of time before we become a symbol of excellence in any area that we choose.