As educators, we stand to learn much from the wisdom of Aristotle. Having an in-depth understanding of Aristotle’s quotes can help you understand the bad habits affecting your productivity. Afterward, you can transform the bad habits into good ones and accomplish set goals and objectives. It’s imperative to implement habit quotes into your personal and professional life to lead a creative, responsible and productive life.
The 14 quotes by Aristotle are:
1. “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
2. “It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth and wisdom.”
3. “We are what we repeatedly do…excellence, therefore, isn’t an act, but a habit and life isn’t a series of events, but an ongoing process of self-definition.”
4. “We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference.”
5. “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.”
6. “The habits we form from childhood make no small difference, but rather they make all the difference.”
7. “Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become by doing acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”
8. “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.”
9. “We are what we do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
10. “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire.”
11. “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”
12. ”It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit.”
13. “95% of everything you do is the result of habit.”
14. “It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.”
These quotes are designed to stimulate self-reflection, habit transformation and lead to a healthy and fulfilling life. I shall touch on the steps required to change a bad habit into a good one. Hopefully, this information will empower you to develop a new perspective on life.
1. “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
Successful people consistently harness their talent and skills to perfection. This exceptional level of discipline is often characterized by failure, setbacks, pain, and despair but despite all the prevailing challenges, successful people withstand such setbacks to emerge victorious. When others contemplate quitting, successful people stand by their decision to commit and adopt new habits.
These successful habits grow by leaps and bounds to place successful people among the elite group of high performers. Achieving such high levels of success might sound impossible but it boils down to constant progress on daily objectives.
2. “It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth and wisdom.”
Successful habits are associated with careful planning and the commitment to learn each habit to perfection. The best habits are often learned before daybreak to capitalize on your fresh mind and energy levels.
When learned before daybreak, successful habits help to strengthen health levels and wisdom development through various ways. For instance, frequent exercise aids in the development of strong muscles and bones courtesy of the absorption of amino acids by muscle tissues.
Furthermore, frequent exercises also boost energy levels leading to prolonged focus when executing daily tasks. This improved memory and focus is attributed to the stimulation of new brain cells in the hippocampus region of the brain.
3. “We are what we repeatedly do…excellence, therefore, isn’t an act, but a habit and life isn’t a series of events, but an ongoing process of self-definition.”
If you’re serious about achieving excellence in any aspect of your life, then it’s high time to adopt successful habits to complement your set goals. Success is a habit based on constant progress on daily actions. It is an ongoing process which defines your character by testing your strengths and weaknesses.
The most distinguishing difference between successful people and underachievers goes way beyond their IQ and immediate surrounding. According to seasoned researchers, IQ plays a minimal role while habits are considered to be the main determinant between the two groups of people.
It’s fascinating to encounter successful people with average IQ levels outperforming their more gifted counterparts based on their exceptional successful habits developed over time. Rather than complain about their average IQ levels, successful people strive to learn new habits and accomplish set goals.
4. “We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference.”
From a young age, people are nurtured to develop certain habits. These habits often entail waking up early in the morning, brushing our teeth, making our beds and washing the dishes. It’s commendable to learn these general habits but as an educator, parent or teacher, you might want to go an extra mile by learning specific habits deemed crucial in the accomplishment of goals in your respective field.
The new habits such as reading widely in your specific field, leveraging the knowledge of your colleagues and minimizing distractions help to improve your focus on daily tasks and staying ahead of your competition.
Adopting these life-changing habits redefines your perspective on how to identify creative solutions to solving niggling challenges both on an academic and professional level.
5. “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.”
The common proverb, “Make hay while the sun shines” speaks volumes about the need to harness youthful years in the accomplishment of set goals. The youthful years serve as a formidable foundation to the attainment of lasting success courtesy of the vigor and creativity to develop successful habits.
As a youthful person, your high energy levels and prolonged focus can work in your advantage when learning new habits. At this age, you can take shorter time to learn successful habits while also juggling various responsibilities.
Adopting successful habits becomes second nature when learned from a young age. And as an educator or student, it’s in your best interest to identify specific habits tailored to help you achieve future goals during your youthful years.
6. “The habits we form from childhood make no small difference, but rather they make all the difference.”
The habits formed from childhood play an important role in shaping your character into adulthood. They might look irrelevant but make no mistake; they often serve as permanent fixtures in adulthood.
For instance, watching TV after dinner may have been a common habit as a child but this habit might manifest into adulthood and yield unproductive results. Compared to a child reading books after dinner, the TV watching habit may have a significant impact in memory retention.
A child raised in a reading culture is more likely to exhibit high intelligence compared to one prone to watching TV often. The reading habit is later on attributed to high reasoning and decision making skills often characterized by leaders in prominent institutions.
As an educator or parent, you may want to pay keen attention to the habits developed by your child. Shaping their habits at a young age is an effective approach to molding them into creative and responsible adults.
7. Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become by doing acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
Adopting moral values is best cultivated from a young age when kids are educated on the need and benefits of exhibiting moral behavior. Attributes such as honesty and fairness are not only important in nurturing good personal and professional relationships but also in strengthening teamwork.
Learning to control emotions and transforming them into productive results speaks volumes about your emotional intelligence and character to lead others. This exemplary behavior also comes in handy when trying to solve disputes between colleagues. For one to effectively execute this task (conflict resolution), it’s imperative to exude fairness and reasoning based on facts.
8. “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.”
Most people might find success to be a tall order to achieve despite their constant efforts. Unfortunately, this sentiment can be attributed to poor planning, unrealistic goals and consistent distraction. Rather than weed out distractions, underachievers have developed a reputation for procrastinating important tasks and exhibiting divided attention.
On the other hand, successful people are highly focused toward the attainment of set goals and objectives. They have mastered the art of constant training to improve on both their strengths and weaknesses. This unwavering commitment strengthens their resolve to withstand challenges while learning successful habits.
9. We are what we do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.
All high performers, regardless of their profession, share a similar attribute. They are winners above all and their constant strive for perfection spans decades. While you may be tempted to think their success is an overnight act, it’s in your best interest to understand their common habits developed over time.
10. All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire.
As an educator or parent, it’s imperative to understand the fundamental reasons behind each action. Most actions are tied to passion, desire, habit, chance, compulsion and nature. Understanding these underlying reasons beforehand can help narrow down the motive and motivation for doing a particular action.
When it comes to developing habits, it’s in your best interest to know their lasting effect on your character. Developing a specific habit must be interrelated with a strong motivation to support the challenging process.
For instance, losing 15 kilograms within 4 months must be motivated by your desire to lead a healthy lifestyle. By having this specific type of goal in mind, you are more motivated to losing weight and maintaining the exercise routine. More importantly, having a specific goal in mind motivates you to monitor daily and weekly progress.
11. You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor
To join the elite league of successful people, it’s imperative to understand and control your fear. While most people let fear control them, successful people have learned the art of controlling fear by wielding courage regardless of the prevailing situation.
Exuding courage gives you the much-needed confidence to identify creative solutions and tackle personal and professional obstacles. To exhibit courage effectively, it’s in your best interest to nurture a growth mindset to value failure as a learning opportunity.
Rather than give up, failure inspires and motivates successful people to get back up after every adversity. It’s crucial to manage fear beforehand if you intend to accomplish set goals and objectives.
12. It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit.
Developing habits may be a time-consuming process but once mastered, the brain automatically absorbs the new behavior as your daily routine. Based on this illuminating content, you may want to develop good habits designed to help you attain more success. These habits might be strenuous to master but adopting them is considered to be a life-changing opportunity.
13. 95% of everything you do is the result of habit
Human behavior is predictable since ordinary routines are attributed to constant repetitions over time. From making the bed to pressing your clothes and taking a shower, these habits manifested through regular practice.
Habits extend beyond the ordinary household actions and extend to character behaviors. At this stage, mastering these habits speaks volumes about you as a person by accentuating your strengths and weaknesses.
For instance, honest people have developed this reputation from being truthful about their actions and intentions beforehand. They are open to interrogation and scrutiny and welcome both positive and negative criticism.
14. It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.
You may have done a single good action to the approval of crowds. However, doing a single action isn’t enough when consistency is your ultimate goal. Logic requires the repetition and improvement of single actions to match the final goal’s requirements.
For instance, completing a 100 meter sprint in 9 seconds might be commendable but doing it consistently helps to cement your reputation as a formidable athlete.
Steps to changing a bad habit into a good one
As mentioned before, eliminating bad habits may not be the best course of action when they are permanently ingrained in the brain. The best course of action entails neutralizing the bad habits and replacing them with good ones. Here are a few guidelines you might consider when approaching this situation.
1) Identify the triggers contributing to the bad behavior
As an educator, parent or student, you might want to keep a journal describing the circumstances leading to the habit. Writing down the specific triggers to your bad habit help to identify its causes, patterns and potential solutions to neutralizing them.
2) Eliminate the temptation
Keeping your bad habits is quite easy when you have an effective strategy. This strategy entails avoiding the people, places and objects prone to enticing you to fall into bad habits. Remember, it’s much easier to neutralize the temptation than to end the dominant force behind the bad habit.
3) Introduce a less desirable element to your bad habit
Introducing a less desirable element to your bad habit prevents you from pursuing the bad habit unconsciously. Furthermore, it motivates you to replace the bad habits with good ones.
For instance, you can place a rubber band on your wrist and snapping it whenever you get motivated to give in to your bad habit. The resulting wrist pain from the occasional snapping nudges you to pursue productive endeavors.
Conclusion
Aristotle’s habit quotes have become a regular feature in most blogs and journals today. These habits are intended to motivate and inspire individuals experiencing setbacks in their academic and professional journeys. Adopting them is a necessity to the modern person looking to regain their personal and professional brilliance.
Related Questions
I find it challenging to neutralize the triggers to my bad habits. How can I rectify this situation? Whenever you’re tempted to do bad habits, consider their adverse effects on your personal wellbeing. This reminder is adequate enough to resist the temptation and shifting focus towards good habits.
My child finds it challenging to keep doing good habits. How can I help him stick to this new plan? It’s understandable for children to exhibit inconsistency when learning good habits. However, you might want to educate them on the need and benefits of learning good habits. Only then will they incorporate the good habits into their daily routines.
