Our fortune is delivered to us by our habits. We can control our habits. Just in that knowledge alone is the key to freedom. “We can control our habits.” However, as we will learn a key is worthless without action. You have to put the key in the lock and turn it to open the lock. Habit is no different. It needs to be trained to work for us.

Recently I took a typing class and learned some advantages of habit. I became proficient at typing by not looking at the keyboard as I typed. There was a virtual keyboard on the screen that the letter I was to type would be highlighted. It became a habit to not look at the keyboard. Habit served me well as I soon learned to type without looking at the keyboard as I typed. Then I learned Old Habits are hard to break. Soon after I finished typing class I found myself again looking at the keys. I had to remind myself not to look at the keyboard as it slowed me down. I had to retrain myself with the new habit. I learned that the old habit will eventually weaken and go away.

I smoked cigarettes most of my life and detested the habit. It was a physical habit as well as chemical addiction which made it the hardest thing for me to conquer. After many years of different approaches to this habit I finally succeeded in quitting about 10 years ago and now cannot even think of it without cringing at the disgusting habit.

Watching TV was a habit for a while that cost me dearly, probably lead me to smoking. The habit itself came from: being designed to become a habit by those who knew a lot more about those things than I ever will. TV is designed to become habit forming and is used to sell products and father their causes. I now no longer expose myself to it. I have found way too many subliminal suggestions on which my old brain picks up on and tries to set into habits.

I want to stay in control of my life, and to do this I must control my habits. I must developed habits to keep myself busy in constructive pursuits. I read a lot, mostly non fiction. I will read anything just enough to learn if there is anything in it that is in line with my objectives. If I cannot apply it to my enterprises I am not interested. I have learned there is way too much information out there for me to just indiscriminately collect it. I have a limited storage capacity in my brain.

Even when I am out on the rec. yard walking I direct my thoughts. I think of things like ideas I am working on. I make this a priority but making it a habit. When I am laying on my bunk eyes closed, I am scanning my memory banks for information I need for my writing projects. I discipline myself to think on things that will father my success. I make this a habit. I have developed a habit of concentrating all my energy onto one thing at a time. I have made repeating the phrase of Emile Coue “Every day, in every way I am getting better and better.” That is a habit that has also served me well.

In my own personal journey I have found that by forming positive new habits I loose old self defeating ones. I use books as a survival kit. I read motivational books. I read books that are about how to become successful. Self help has become second nature to me. It has become a habit that serves me well.

One of the greatest obstacles I over came was idleness. In prison you can get overwhelmed easily. Usually when that happens you do nothing or very little. Then what you do is self defeating eating when your not hungry. Drugs and gambling what ever will fill the void. By filling that void with self help and motivational reading and action, writing letters. The main thing is to develop new habits that keep you busy. Find something you would like to do, and set out on a quest to find out everything you can on it. Make thinking about it your habit.

When you read this, you can bet I am in my office (cell) at my desk (little table) working on an idea, project or some task that will bring me success. I have no time to waste. I invest my tome in my enterprises and even there I spend it as wisely as I can.

I am learning it is not so much the big things we do as the little habits we form that make up our character. I feel better mentally and physically when I know I am in control by thinking about my habits that deliver to me my fortune.