Effects of bad habits on your personality

Habits over a period of time moulds character and character gives birth to destiny. It is therefore important that healthy habits are cultivated in order to have successful and effective life. There are several common healthy highly effective people.  Mrs Adams is a 35 year-old civil servant mother of three and known in  her neighborhood […]

Habits over a period of time moulds character and character gives birth to destiny. It is therefore important that healthy habits are cultivated in order to have successful and effective life. There are several common healthy highly effective people.
 Mrs Adams is a 35 year-old civil servant mother of three and known in  her neighborhood as a trouble maker. On a particular day, she came back home only to meet one of her children with bruises and when she asked about the wounds, he told her it was from a fight he had with one of the children in the neighborhood. The mother who could not resist the anger in her went to the boy’s house and engaged in a fight with his mother and in the process, her head was broken. She was hit so hard on the head that she lost a lot of blood and was rushed to the hospital.
Everyone in the area was happy about what happened to her due to the way she behaves towards her husband, in-laws and others in the neighbourhood. It also affected her children because no parent wants her children to play with her’s just to avoid her troubles.
Commenting on the issue, Hajiya Fatima Usman, a housewife said: “We should seek to understand before being understood. Try to listen to people sincerely. Do not judge people without trying first to understand them. We should try and listen more with less talk.”
“This can make us understand ourselves and treat people better. This can go a long way in helping us to become better people. When you are sure you understand someone then reveal yourself so you can be understood,” she added.
A man who wants to be known simply as Tunde said habits can tarnish one’s reputation or even his life. According to him, “I used to be a gateman to one Alhaji and the way the man behaves towards people working under him is very bad to the extent that if the man is contesting for something and I am asked to vote for him, I swear I will not, so that’s why I said it can tarnish one’s image.”
Another respondent who doesn’t want his name mentioned said we can overcome the bad habits in us by accepting our mistakes and apologizing to the person who we have offended.
Mallama Aisha, a housewife  on her part believes the society we live in today can change one’s good character into bad one as we change environment and mingle with new people.  “And you begin to think and even dress like them. You see you have left your real kind of person to join another kind of people,” she said.
Responding to the question, if a newly cultivated habit can affect families living happy lives, Alhaji Kabiru Muhammed a civil servant said: “Well I think it can, because you know ladies of nowadays are not like our mothers. For example you live in a house with your wife who is a graduate and she stays at home to take care of the children for you and other responsibilities in the house.
“Eventually she gets employed in an organization but still continues with her responsibility as a mother. After sometime she stops all what she normally does at home and comes home late, the children begin to lack that motherly care she used to give to them because she is always with her friends and colleagues in the office without thinking of the well being of her family . This kind of habit most working mothers cultivate cannot only affect the husband and the kids but also the people living around them.”
Consequently, people should learn to work together with others. You cannot do everything yourself so learn to cooperate and learn from others. Try to celebrate individual differences because nobody is made with the same abilities and qualities as another.
This is important because many teenagers in the quest to be more popular and to be part of the “happening people” lose sight of things that are far more important like decency, integrity and accountability. We tend to give in to peer pressure. This should not be so. We should learn to choose the right things.
Also, we should learn to renew ourselves regularly, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We should try to acquire knowledge and education. Reading is a good way of renewing the mind with information. We should also try to build relationship with people thus having an overall sound life.
In summary, habits are important in shaping an individual’s personality. If you take a habit, train it and be firm with it. It could place the world at your feet but if you toy with it, it may destroy you.