bonfires........................

 

“If you want to do something, make a habit of it, if you don’t want to do that, don’t, but make a habit of something else instead.”

Epictetus said habits—good and bad—were like a bonfire. Every time we perform a habit, we reinforce it. We add fuel to the fire. “Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running,” Epictetus said, “therefore, the same principle is at work in our state of mind. When you get angry, you’ve not only experienced that evil, but you’ve also reinforced a bad habit, adding fuel to the fire.” It was likely one of the many lessons he learned from his teacher, Musonius Rufus. Rufus was perhaps the earliest philosopher to identify the power of habits. In “many circumstances,” he said, “we do not deal with our affairs in accordance with correct assumptions, but rather we follow thoughtless habit.”

-as cut-and-pasted from Sunday's Daily Stoic