bad habits is often exceedingly difficult. As the old Spanish
proverb says, «Habits begin as cobwebs and end as cables."
When they get to the «cable" stage, habits are not easily
broken.
Because of the importance of habits-their for-
mation, durability and elimination-psychologists have
devoted much study and many experiments to them. It has
been discovered that one of the easiest, surest and best
methods of eliminating a bad habit is what is called:
«Negative Practice."
«Negative Practice" has become such a valu-
able technique in personality improvement that it deserves
a place in this book, and we shall devote the next few
minutes to a brief study of it.
Since we are going to apply the technique of
«Negative Practice" to the elimination of bad habits, let's
see how bad habits get formed in the first place.
( 1) A habit starts by being a conscious activ-
ity. You are fully aware that you are doing what you are
doing, and whether you do it or not is a matter of your
conscious control.
( 2) Then, by repetition, the habit activity is
directed less and less by your conscious, deliberate control
and more and more, it is assigned to your unconscious (or
subconscious) direction.
( 3) Finally, you have no conscious control of
the habit at all. It becomes a sort of conditioned reflex.
When certain conditions exist, the now-unconscious habit
is activated. The habit-action takes place whether you will
it or not. In fact, the more will power you attempt to use