I’m a huge advocate for reading. School ends eventually, and when it does, it’s important to continue educating yourself. Although some people watch TV or listen to podcasts, I generally gravitate towards development books. There is something about being in an author’s headspace that makes the experience of reading so realistic for me. I genuinely love being let into someone else’s thoughts through binded pages in a book.
I recently read Atomic Habits by James Clear. The book outlined step-by-step how to create positive habits and then, inversely, how to break bad ones. It’s motivating but not in a “you got this, stick with it, have some willpower” way. He offers suggestions that are really simple and straightforward. For instance, if you want to start consistently working out, don’t leave it all up to willpower to get you to the gym. Literally start by making yourself get changed into your workout clothes right after you get home from work or close your laptop. That first step is your trigger to workout. Now, instead of thinking, “I have to get to the gym today,” think, “I have to put my workout clothes on when I get home.”
There are usually easy little ways we can alter our thought processes and routines. They don’t have to be crazy at all. He also talks a lot about how building habits isn’t just about doing that specific task. It’s actually about much more.
Clear explains that:
The goal isn’t just to go to the gym, it’s to take consistent care of your body.
The goal isn’t just to quit smoking, it’s to prioritize your overall health.
The goal isn’t just to journal every morning, it’s to learn how to cope with your emotions.
Ultimately, habits that you are looking to build translate to the type of person you want to become. It’s really as simple as that. If you have the desire to be a healthy, fit human, you‘ll want to build habits that foster that type of person. At the end of the day, our consistent, daily habits become our identity.
I’ve thought about this concept a lot. I write daily and have been for six or so years now. Am I a professional writer? No. Do I consider myself a writer? Yes. Why? Because it’s an engrained habit of mine. It’s who I am at this point.
Picking up a pencil and writing one time doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a writer. Getting to the gym one time doesn’t mean you’re in shape. Juggling a soccer ball for a half an hour doesn’t mean you are a soccer player. It’s the decisions that are made on a consistent, regular basis that are the ones that shape our identity. In other words, all your decisions cast a vote for who you are or want to become.
I am someone who does not believe one political party, religion, or categorical embodiment insinuates you are a “good” or “bad” person. I strongly dislike when people label anyone as one adjective based off of one incident because people are compilations of so much. Whenever I hear someone say, “he/she is so stupid,” (which for some reason I feel like I hear a lot) I always think, “how could you define a whole human in just one way?” Maybe what that person said or did was “stupid”, but that person is likely not.
Voting for one political party or the other doesn’t make you evil or a saint. I would not want to be judged based on a singular attribute or decision I’ve made.
But you simply cannot deny the fact that making continuous decisions over and over again are just mere choices. At some point, they are your identity. The same way you would consistently get up to workout to become someone who takes care of her health, is the same way you would identify someone who has consistently avoided denouncing blatant hate and inequality.
If you voted for a man who has allowed room for racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, the list goes on, you did not make the decision to just vote Republican during this election. You casted a vote for the person he is and what he allows.
It is not wrong to reserve the right to retract or withdraw your energy and attention from people who made the decision to vote for a man who has shown time and time and time again that he didn’t just make a bad decision. He has a bad habit of dragging down a nation and a whole world, and that, is not just one choice; it is his identity. It should go without saying that a decision to continually support a man who allows hate to grow shapes your identity, too.
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