CHAPTER XIII
CAPITALIZING EXPERIENCE—HABIT FORMATION Increasing Human Efficiency in Business: A Contribution to the Psychology of Business | ||
PERSONAL HABITS
Personal habits are the most apparent and those by which we most often judge an individual. Manner of dress becomes so much a matter of habit that the wearing apparel is sometimes spoken of as the habit, and, as Shakespeare says, it oft betrays the man. Cleanliness and neatness of appearance, the tone and accent of voice, the manner of walking
We become fond of doing things in the manner to which we have become habituated. This tendency manifests itself to an abnormal degree in the drinking and the smoking habit. In a lesser degree we see the same thing in the attachment of the babe for his pacifier and the child for his chewing gum. Habit creates a craving for the good as well as for the bad. The ways to which we have become habituated seem pleasing to us whether they be good or bad. There is truth in the proverb, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it." It might be added that the child will not want to depart from the way to which he has been trained, for
It is very unusual for any one to acquire a language after the age of twenty so as to speak it without a foreign accent. All other personal habits are like the use of language in that they are acquired during the early years and are not easily changed. So far as personal habits are concerned, but little change need be anticipated after the twentieth year.
CHAPTER XIII
CAPITALIZING EXPERIENCE—HABIT FORMATION Increasing Human Efficiency in Business: A Contribution to the Psychology of Business | ||