You Get the Break
"We are what we repeatedly do." - Aristotle
I once had a summer basketball camp coach who was fond of misquoting Vince Lombardi. He told us boys, "Practice does not make perfect. Practicing right makes you perfect. Practicing the wrong things makes you perfect at the wrong things."
Isn't it odd that we jump to practicing without asking if we're practicing the right things?
We practice the things that keep the peace, that make the money, that pay the mortgage, that make us popular, that we see in the media, that other people do. The results reinforce our habits, which reinforce our minds, that reassure our opinions that we must be practicing the right things.
Habits are so hard to change because, good or bad, once we're practiced at them, they're ours. They're us. People know us by our habits. They know what to expect of us, where to find us, how we'll behave. But more, habits are what we know of ourselves. If we practice habits that produce good results, we self-assess as, "good." If we practice habits with less-than-desired results, we call ourselves, "bad," or weak, or lazy, or any number of names that do absolutely nothing to encourage us. That's not a good habit. But it's ours. So, [insert person, boss, church, spouse, parent, child] stop bugging me about my [insert habit here]. That's just who I am.
If only we could get a break from what we repeatedly (have to) do. But then, who would we be?
My tradition of faith has long wrestled with this question. The Heidelberg Catechism of 1576 answered this way:
"I am not my own, but belong--body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.... Because I belong to him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me whole-heartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him."
In other words: You are not what you repeatedly do. You are not just the sum of your habits. You are something more than the results your practices produce.
Your habits are just... habits. They may be good; they may be bad; but they're not you. You're free to jump out of the hamster wheel of habits and try something else without sacrificing your worth.
You get the break.
What will you do with it?
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