The Habit of Writing

Desire leads you to paint an ideal vision of yourself, habit leads to this ideal. Furthermore, one would hope this ideal is rooted in excellence (virtue). Before pursuing a desire it should first be investigated whether this object is aligned with what is true and good. Happiness is a habit in accordance with virtue, to use the popular Aristotelean term. Thus, every habit and desire inversely ought to point towards happiness. But human nature does that by it’s own innate propensity, yes? Yes, except that it is possible to deceive oneself (or be deceived), desires must be properly vetted by reason. Vet desires first, develop the habits required to meet that ideal vision, and with the success of those two one will effectively be building the habits of happiness.

Personally, writing is one of these ‘ideal visions,’ a product of the creative mind which recognizes a habit worth doing well. In my imagination it is something the ideal version of myself does daily. The topic of the literature becomes, at the days end, the disquisition of my life, what I believe, and how certain people or ideas have shaped my tenets. Why an audience would gather is of little importance. In the past maybe I would have been inclined to pine after some hobby in the hopes of it producing monetary profits, but writing, I find, has a much more valuable intellectual profit.

The theme here is anything done ought to better oneself. This is ultimately why certain habits have come to an end — they simply didn’t add value (though they were certainly fun and indulging, I must say. Did I mention they were fun?). Or ENOUGH value, there is the painful limitation of time, and it must be navigated with a steadfast heart to remove what is a hinderance to reaching the aforementioned ‘ideal vision.’

Adam Smith writes in his great exposition The Wealth of Nations, “The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education” (I). It is difficult not to apply this to the soul. The lesson is plain, one’s character will be defined by what they do. After careful deliberation of an ideal vision (because sacrifice of a different habit will be required to make room for a new one), craft the habits necessary to transfer the image from the imagination to reality.

I took the time to write this before Church this morning because, for me, writing is one of these ideals.

Citations:

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations