Choice, Not Habit

Mark Crilley is an artist and writer who posts Youtube videos with tips on how to be a better artist and/or writer. One piece of advice he gave on making creative works came into my mind recently, and I thought I'd take it out of context and turn it into a blog post.

During his video titled "How to Do Good Creative Work: 10 Do's & Don'ts," he advised that "Everything should be a choice: not something done automatically out of habit." I agree with this advice. While good habits are helpful, it's also good to consider the choices we make, even the good ones, and ask ourselves why we do those things. Doing so can help us find the motivation to keep making those choices because it reminds us of what our motivations were from the start.

I am usually a helpful person. Lately, when I'm in an especially selfish or sour mood, I think that the main reason I help people is because they expect me to, because I have a duty to, or because I've developed a habit of doing so and I now lack the will-power to do otherwise. While any of those may be true, none of them are the reason I became a helpful person in the first place. I first started helping people because I wanted to, because I wanted to make people happy, and because I always felt good inside when I did that. And, yes, those are all selfish reasons to help others, but they are also better reasons than any of the ones I listed before them. The latter reasons are better because they're more motivating, more encouraging, and more likely to help me maintain the habit of helping others.

We shouldn't do anything - not even good things - just out of habit. Mark Crilley warned: "I feel that there is a danger in doing things automatically. You lose your humanity, in a way." Having agency, the ability and freedom to make choices, is part of what makes us human. When we allow our habits to decide our choices, we lose a part of ourselves that takes real effort to get back. But we should all try get that part back and make our choices deliberately because that will help us overcome bad habits and be more satisfied with the good habits we maintain. For too long, I have been a creature of habit. Over time, I hope to return to being a man of choice.