“Sow an action, reap a habit.”
What is a habit?
A habit is nothing but an action that has been repeated in the past and has now become a natural inclination i.e. preference for us.
Just to note: “an action” in the above definition includes thoughts, words, and actions.
At times, I think that a bad action is harmful, for the bad consequences it brings to us by the law of “As you sow, so shall you reap”, but it is even more harmful, for the fact that performing it once makes us more inclined to repeat it in the future. Sooner than later, such an action becomes a habit, and then a part of our character. At that stage, it becomes excruciatingly difficult to change it. The more we repeat an action, the more the momentum it gathers. And the more the momentum, the more difficult it is to stop it. Therefore, I believe, the best time to stop a bad habit is at the time of its origination.
So, before we engage in any negative behavior, let’s be doubly cautious: such behavior will only make its repetition more probable in the future, thus throwing our life in a pool of negativity.