Habituation

Yesterday, I learnt a secret to success - habituation. As easily evidenced, the root word is "habit".

In psychology, habituation is the psychological process in humans and animals in which there is a decrease in behavioral response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus over a duration of time.

Many people want to be successful, they wish to be successful, they hope to be successful. But more often than not, they did not succeed. The reason is very simple - they gave up in the process of trying. And they become convinced that they are never meant to be those super beings.

One of the main reasons of the cause is that they probably have not tried hard enough. When I was young, Mathematics seemed to be the impossible. I had my fair share of struggle with the subject but managed to gain supremacy of the subject in my upper primary. I progressed further to graduate with an Honours Degree in the subject.

Next is English. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined myself to eke out a career having much ado with English - I am an analyst and I write analysis paper/report, lest having a blog.

Last but not least is my public speaking skills. Though not as polished and elegant as many professional speakers, I have come a long way compared to my former self just a year ago. Much of the improvements could be attributed to me joining a toastmaster club.

In all these challenges, I manage to emerge victorious in my own right as I dutifully force myself to practise. The initial stage is the most tortuous but as I improve, things become easier and enjoyable. I suppose that is the power of habituation.

Now I realise that there is no secret to success. As Thomas Edison once said genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. We can all be genius if we are prepared to sweat it out.