726 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-CREATIONHabit grows out of environment-the sum total of all sources by
which you are influenced through the aid of the five senses of seeing,
hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling-and out of doing the same
thing in the same way over and over again, out of repetition, out of
thinking the same thoughts over and over.
Except on rare occasions when it rises above environment, the
human mind draws from its surroundings the material out of which
thought is created. Habit crystallizes this thought into a permanent
fixture, storing it away in the subconscious mind where it becomes
a vital part of our personality and silently influences our actions, forms
our prejudices and our biases, and controls our opinions.
A great philosopher had in mind the power of habit when he said:
"We first endure, then pity, and finally embrace," in speaking of the
manner in which honest men come to indulge in crime.
We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our envi-
ronment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental
feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is
extracted.THE FORCES OF HABIT
It has been said that all people are the creatures of habit, and that
habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day and it becomes so
strong that we cannot break it.
If it is true that habit can compel us against our will, desire, and
inclination, and thereby dominate our actions and character, then it
can also be mastered, harnessed, and directed for our good. Thousands
of people have applied this knowledge and have turned the force of
habit into new channels.
A habit is a "mental path" over which our actions have traveled
for some time, each passing making the path a little deeper and a little
wider. If you have had to walk over a field or through a forest, you