“There is no vice which lacks a defense, none that at the outset isn’t modest and easily intervened — but after this the trouble spreads widely. If you allow it to get started you won’t be able to control when it stops. Every emotion is at first weak. Later it rouses itself and gathers strength as it moves along — it’s easier to slow it down than to supplant it.”
SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 116.2b-3a
It’s easy to ignore bad habits. We hope they’ll go away of their own volition, or sort themselves out, or that we’ll just stop doing them. That doesn’t happen, of course.
We make jokes out of our vices, as though they’re something to be chuckled at. We make cute little t-shirts and wall hangings about our dependence on wine to be happy, or how addicted we are to football (that’s me), or how hilarious it is that we procrastinate all the time. Is it really that funny?
Allowing these problems to run unchallenged means that they grow over time, and become harder and harder to stop. Eventually they’re out of control and seemingly impossible to corral. That’s why it’s always better to stop bad habits at the source, before they expand and become unmanageable.
Bad habits make the person, as we learned in a different page of The Daily Stoic. We are what we repeatedly do. Are these vices truly what you want to define you?
You don’t have to break the cycle all at once. It’s okay to break a bad habit slowly. The key is to do it early, at the source, before it grows in power and impact. Before it becomes a bigger problem and takes over your life. This is important here — don’t play with fire. Summon the courage to abstain. Crush the vice now, while you can.
