Alexander The Great: Watch Your Habits!
“We first make our habits, then our habits make us” — John Dryden
WHAT will eventually bring a man down from a great height is actually the habit that followed him there. You can’t be a winner with losers’ habits. Successful people are simply those with successful habits. One of the greatest philosophers of all times, Aristotle, once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”
You must consciously cultivate the habits that you are willing should master you. Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them. Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity. Your habit can either hinder or hasten your journey to destiny fulfilment. Parting ways with our bad habits and replacing them with good ones is by no means a simple task. It takes supernatural intervention, commitment, willpower and an unwavering desire to overcome our seemingly natural tendencies to think, feel, speak and act in a certain way. We are creatures of habit and our habit says a lot about our destination. Bad habits have conquered many great minds more than violent enemies. King Philip of Macedonia was the father of Alexander the Great; he built a vast empire from the Mediterranean Sea to India. King Philip employed the great Philosopher Aristotle to teach the young Alexander and prepare him for the greatness that awaited him; Aristotle nurtured him into becoming a worthy prince and a great general. In 334BC, Alexander fought against the ‘ undefeatable’ Darius, the King of Persia and overthrew him. Alexander went further to seize power from Pharaoh and he was himself crowned Pharaoh; he eventually found a city in Egypt and called it Alexandria.
Alexander the Great became so great that his surname became “The Great”! At the age of 32, he was said to have conquered the whole then world that there was nothing more to conquer. But at the tail end of his life, he lost grip of moral purity, and he was conquered by an undying habit. As a result of moral decadence, the conqueror of the world empires became a victim of his own lack of self- restraint, hence he lost the battle over life due to indiscipline and lack of restraint.
The Macedonians and their monarchs had a proud tradition of heavy alcohol consumption, but Alexander’s appetite for strong drinks surpassed them all. He had just conquered India and was preparing for another expedition to ravage Arabia. Alexander decided to organize a banquet for the army to celebrate the end of one campaign, the invasion of India, and the imminent onset of a new one, the invasion of Arabia. There is a school of thought that believed his drink was poisoned while another argued along the path of natural death but one thing remains true: his love for strong drinks made him vulnerable to the enemy’s plan. Our bad habit will always make
Setting healthy boundaries help in overcoming bad habits by ensuring that we don’t overshoot our thresholds. Setting boundary is not limitation; it is rather a way of checking and ensuring that we don’t lose control
us vulnerable to enemy’s attack.
Though he attempted to establish unity of culture in the empire, and the modern city of Alexandria in Egypt still testifies to this, but just at the height of his power he was broken, not by the military might of any nation or by any weapon of war that he could not withstand, but by the enemy that lay within him. He was destroyed by a habit he refused to give up- his unguarded love for strong liquor! His life and death taught us all that we can aspire for anything, but we will eventually end up at the level of our habits.
Alexander died, a month or so short of his 33rd birthday, and all his dreams and aspirations died with him. His whole life was summed up satirically in ancient literature as: “Alexander the Great, the man who conquered the whole world but could not conquer himself!”
Learning how to break a bad habit can be so daunting but not impossible. I have the special privilege of helping many youths overcome nagging addictions and bad habits over the years. I have compiled ten ways to summarily help youths in overcoming bad habits.
• Remove The Triggers: Every addiction has a trigger- something that inspires or awakens the urge. If you want to deal with any addiction, then you must first remove every sign of what triggers it in your environment. For example, downloaded porn videos, porn sites and porn magazines are triggers for the habits of pornography and masturbation.
• Avoid Too Much Isolation: In Psychology, it is believed that addiction is a disease of isolation. Isolation, most times can empower bad habits and addictions. The urge to indulge in any bad habit mostly comes in moments of isolation. So, avoid too much isolation. A developing addiction leads to the addict becoming withdrawn, remote and emotionally distant.
• Avoid Association And Companies That Empower Your Addiction: The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15: 33: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” Relationships can empower or help us overcome our addictions. Avoid moving with people struggling with the addiction or habit you are planning to come out of.
• Fill Your Mind And Time With Productive Activities: Proverbs 16: 27 says: “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.” The mind of a man cannot remain vacant for a long time unless it is occupied with fruitful ideas. It will turn to bad thoughts. Your mind abhors vacuum, so it must always be occupied by something, or it would find something to occupy itself.
• Find Social Support And Seek Help: Social support is vital to our health as human beings, as it empowers us to feel welcomed, important, loved and part of something greater. Addicts often use substances to artificially replicate feelings of importance, love and happiness. However, the great irony is that addicts only wind up lonelier than they felt before. Attaining real social support is critical to overcoming addictions and bad habits.
• Hold Yourself Accountable To Someone: Breaking habits is hard, but finding support from a friend or partner can be incredibly helpful in keeping you focused on repeating
your new habit or to stop you from repeating an old one. I will like to call it the “Accountability partner” or “Habit- Crushing Partner”. Have an open and honest discussion with them on what habit you’re trying to crush and explain how they can help. Most times, it is better to choose an accountability partner that has overcome your own present struggle. Never make someone with whom you are struggling from the same bad habit or addiction your accountability partner.
• Set Boundaries: Setting healthy boundaries help in overcoming bad habits by ensuring that we don’t overshoot our thresholds. Setting boundary is not limitation; it is rather a way of checking and ensuring that we don’t lose control. People fall back into bad habits when they refuse to respect their boundaries. For example, if you want to overcome your addiction to sugar, you must be willing to set boundaries around your diet.
• Replace A Habit With A New One: In overcoming bad habits, discipline alone is not enough. You can only replace a habit with another habit. In order to reduce the impact of stopping a habitual behaviour, you can replace it with another habit that has a more positive and healthy impact on your life.
• Celebrate The Small Wins And Successes: I have often realized that many people fall back into former addictions or habits because they never designed a system to celebrate their ‘ little’ successes. Whether you can break a habit in 21 days or 21 weeks, you need to celebrate every day where you haven’t repeated the habit. Keep a journal to track your progress in your journey to overcoming the addictions and also attach a reward to every progress. Record and Reward Your Progress.
• Seek Spiritual Intervention: I have come to understand the place of spiritual intervention in overcoming addictions. Overcoming addiction is not just only psychological; it is a spiritual battle. Seek the help of a spiritual mentor whom you trust and can be opened to. It will make a big difference.
It is psychologically true that what you can endure, you cannot change. Change that habit or one day it will ultimately seal your fate. Everyone is different, so try different approaches when it comes to breaking habits. If you fail, look at the reason, adapt, and try again, and don’t forget to celebrate what you have done well. By staying mindful of what does and doesn’t work for you, you can begin to create the lifestyle you have always wanted.