Learning From Repetition

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~Aristotle

I remember when my daughter Angie was in early recovery, a doctor we knew told her to replace the using habit with something else, something healthful. Any habit, good or bad, takes up time in our lives. When we want to rid ourselves of bad habits, according to this doctor, we need to replace them with something else that is pleasurable.

Easier said than done, of course, when drugs are surrendered in favor of something else. But creating good habits takes commitment, determination and time. Many addicts give up drugs and rebuild their lives. They just have to stay committed to sobriety.

My wish for all of us caught one way or another in the hellish world of addiction is that we find a better way to live—a way to live well and be happy.

2 thoughts on “Learning From Repetition

  1. very well stated…Aristotle’s comment (“Excellence…is…a habit”), while perhaps impossible to regularly attain, states a most desirable goal, and your comment about “commitment, determination, and time” puts the problem into a workable perspective.

    1. Thank you. “Workable” is the key word here. It’s hard to change bad habits and the difficulty makes many give up. We’re not reaching too high when we try to make changes. It is attainable with commitment.

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