Breaking the habit

| Marc Pichel

Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over, while expecting different results.Sisyphus, a greek king of Ephyra,was punished for chronic deceitfulness by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, repeating this action forever. Basically: Ephyra's Afterlife = Mass of Stone x Comfortlessness Squared. I guess Einstein only confirmed that the afterlife could be pretty insane.

Photo by: Eigen foto Marc Pichel

A Bit of 'Ha'

Nothing seems to make us laugh more nowadays, than people trying something they inevitably will fail at; indefinitely. You can think of the popular public humiliation shows on TV with a plethora of delusional superstar-wannabe's, or the fail-videos on youtube of people that are not cut out for sports or any type of hand-eye-coordination related activity.

Perhaps as addictive for us to watch, as performing the activities might be for the performers. Habits and addiction are all around. Everybody has something that triggers a binge: taste of chocolate, smell of books, movies or sports. Even the most Zen monks daily reinforce their devotion to an altruistic and meditative way of life; a habitual happiness hypothesis based on principles.

The Habit: The Desolation of Purpose

Some students prefer a structured life consisting of getting up at 6:00 to catch every class and refocussing after a long day of courses to do all of the assigned homework and some simply sleep in and slow down the pace. Repetitive, ritualistic routines you can get comfortable with. Minor addictions to some or a consistent yielding to societal expectations to others. The habit of perspective shifting helps deciding which road is best.

Habits themselves are simply (non-)constructive when put in the context of a goal. As a student your life is dictated by and judged based on how successfully you optimize your time and results into repetitive success. This means letting go of superfluous structures or adopting new ones in order to reach graduation. The parent of all these choreographed time-chunks is the over-arching, habitual addiction encompassing them all: Life.

Breaking the Habit

Out of all habits and addiction, living is probably the most undervalued and unnoticed. Threaten to take it away from people and they respond as if deprived of their immortal, privileged and busy lives. We third millennial students are enchanted by the continuous, pervasive stimuli, which come with the basic life of the internet generation. Exponentially growing amounts of things, people, facts, fictions and ideation, while still sticking to the generic 'education, relation and next generation' pattern as a species.

Saying 'yes' has become habit. It's so easy to get drawn into distractions for the reality-challenged, that we sometimes need reminding of how wonderful life is. Beyond the shackles of our own comfort zone lies the rest of the world we postpone seeing, because we assume that this addiction of living will never end. The real question is: Do you appreciate it before it is too late, or will other habits distract you from the biggest addiction you have yet to fully explore?

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus, www.9gag.com/gag/a9MNL21

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