We all understand about habits. We often see the habits of others as a lack of willpower, but we see our own habits as an integral part of who we are.
Habits are hard to break. We often need strong incentives to make changes because they often feel like changing our very nature. So, we need incentives like a heart attack, or a major shift in the natural realities that define the environment in which we live.
That environment includes economics, social patterns, or a shift in the basic nature of life on the planet. Well, we are in the midst of a huge environmental shift. The economics of life suffered a jolt and requires us to adjust quickly and in major ways we never dreamed would occur. It has disrupted the entire consumer process, not only about our ability to earn money, but also the options of how we spend it. Our social patterns, of necessity, have had to shift away from direct contact with others, especially groups of any size. It has also shifted our perception of the basic norm of reality of the planet. We are now aware of how fragile human life can be and that we need to adjust to the hard realities of the planet, it does not adjust to our needs.
What has happened is that we all have found that when we must deal with quick and major changes, we rediscover our ability to find creative solutions, our ability to work cooperatively, our resilience, our need to ask for help and our ability to reach out to others. We also realize the value of friends and family and our individual ability to be courageous and make change; we realize that we can break old habits when necessary.
It is the American spirit.
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Bob Passi
Baxter
