Good Habits, Good Personality, Good Relationships - Habits Shape Personality. Personality Determines Fate (Classic Collection of Survival Wisdom)

Author: Covey
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Understanding Habits to Master Them
In daily life, people consciously and unconsciously exhibit certain habitual behaviors and actions. These actions are not necessarily consciously controlled by the brain; they are merely unconscious behaviors of humans. However, it is these unconscious behaviors that often lead to unexpected consequences, which are what we commonly refer to as "habits." Some people's actions are often influenced by habits, yet they do not understand what habits are and frequently ask themselves, "What are habits?"
What are habits? Habits are repetitive, usually unconscious patterns of daily behavior. The power of habits is immense. Ninety percent of a person's daily activities involve repeating the same actions, which are then transformed into programmed inertia in the subconscious. These behaviors operate automatically without requiring conscious thought. Habits are both the servants of great individuals and the accomplices of failures. Great individuals achieve greatness with the help of habits, while failures are equally to blame for their habits. Therefore, habits play a pivotal role in people's daily lives.
Take trains as an example. People who travel long distances often take trains. With the continuous advancement of technology, trains have gone through generations, but the standard distance between the rails has never changed. Do you know why? This requires understanding how the standard distance between two rails in modern railways came to be.
During the ancient Roman period, the width of the two horses' rear ends pulling a war chariot was four feet and eight and a half inches. Therefore, the Romans used this measurement as the width of the chariot wheelbase. At that time, Rome ruled the entire European continent, and even the long roads in Britain were laid out by the Romans for their armies. Thus, the width of the road ruts in Britain naturally became four feet and eight and a half inches. Any other wheel width would not last long on these roads. So, if a carriage used a different wheelbase, its wheels would quickly be damaged on Britain's old roads.
The pioneers of electric trains were originally carriage builders, so the standard wheelbase of electric trains was inherited from the standards of horse-drawn carriages. Early railways were designed by people who built electric trains, so four feet and eight and a half inches became the standard distance between two rails in modern railways.
What is even more fascinating is that this habit influenced the width of the two rocket boosters on the sides of the U.S. space shuttle's fuel tank. This is because the boosters were manufactured and then transported by train. The roads they traveled through had tunnels that were only slightly wider than the train tracks, so the width of the rocket boosters was determined by the track width.
Therefore, the conclusion is: the width of two horse rear ends two thousand years ago determined the width of the U.S. space shuttle's rocket boosters. This phenomenon is known as "path dependency."
"Path dependency" is similar to "inertia" in life. This self-reinforcing mechanism is common in daily life. It makes people, once they choose a certain path, continuously reinforce their choices in future developments.