To be able to practice and
maintain our spiritual discipline, we should make our spiritual discipline as a
habit to our daily life; therefore, we should be able to develop a new habit.
It’s easy for people to build new bad habits; however, developing a new and
good habit is not something easy to do for many people since it requires
commitment. Beside commitments, to be able to build the right habits we should
firstly discontinue our wrong habits that we have been doing in the past. Most
common bad habits can be generalized into two major wrong habits; they are the
habit of procrastination and distraction. Some people find the habit of
procrastination to be more challenging for them to overcome while other people
find distraction as the more challenging habit to overcome.
Focusing
on the habit of distraction, this habit has been very common to find especially
in the modern days today. With the advancement and continual development of
technology, many new innovations were made possible. These new technologies and
innovations are originally invented to bring convenience and help us in our
daily life; however, some technology becomes a distraction to us and bringing
negative impact to our life. The clear examples of such distracting
technologies are found in the area of entertainment, specifically the
innovation of computer games and also television. Although such entertainment
could bring refreshment to us, we often overuse them which allow us to become
addicted; therefore the entertainment technologies distract us from maintaining
our discipline. This misuse of the technology is caused by our lack of
self-control towards our will of flesh which tends to always seeking for
pleasure.
If
self-control is the main issue that causes our bad habit of distraction, there
are only two options for the solution. The first solution is practicing to
control ourselves which is more challenging and difficult to do for many people
since we have to be able to force ourselves to change. The other solution is to
put the distraction away when we are doing our daily discipline or work so that
we are not distracted while doing our work. If we are unable to adjust
ourselves, then we should adjust the distraction such that we will not be
easily distracted. At most time, the second solution of putting away the
distraction does work better compared to the first solution of trying to
control ourselves; however, the solution of putting away the distraction is not
always applicable since the thing that distract us are sometimes required in
order to perform our work. One of the examples is the computer as something
necessary, but distracting. Sometimes the computer is required for us to do our
printed assignments or research, but the computer itself distract us by
allowing us to go online and chat, or even playing games; therefore,
self-control is still important for us to practice.
Personally,
I’m having a big problem with distractions. While I’m doing my assignments, I’m
easily distracted to do something else which cause me to lose my focus on the
assignment or work that I should been doing; consequently, I often sleep late
past midnight to finish my assignments which I could have finish before my
sleeping hour. The most distraction for me is my computers and other
electronics installed in my room. At one point, I plan to remove them from my
room, but I realize that I need those electronic to do my works as well;
therefore, my solution is to do my homework outside my room where the
distraction I’m far from the distraction. After I have finished the written
assignment, I then do the assignments that requires computer while practicing
my self-control as well so that I’m not distracted.
As a
conclusion, to be able to develop the right habit, we should first overcome and
discontinue our bad habits. One of the most common habits is the bad habit of
distraction. In the modern world today, distraction is found almost everywhere,
especially with the new developing technologies and innovations. The
distractions when we are doing our work are due to the lack of self-control
since human beings have the tendency to enjoy pleasure rather than to work
hard. In this case, there are two solutions which are adjusting ourselves to
have a strong self-control over the distractions, or adjusting the distraction
itself by putting them away so that they may not distract us. Although the
second solution works better, there are certain cases where we need the things
that distract us such as computers to do our work. Therefore, self-control is a
character that someone should build since it’s always required to overcome
distractions in our life. Grenville Kleiser, an American author, said that by
constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of
character.