Practice and Habit Copy

During my training programmes, a common question I have been asked by the participants is, “ immediately after the training programme the changes we make are effective and reflects in our performance. Few days later we slide back to our old habits…how and what should we do to make the changes last and make it our second nature?”.  I quote the following story.

Once upon a time a city was experiencing heavy drought but a forest on the borders of the kingdom was always fertile and received rains regularly. The King was in learning the secret of the forest. He learnt through his messengers that the nomads who lived in the forest did a special dance called rain dance to invite rain.

The King requested the nomads to teach the rain dance to his ministers so that they could dance and invite rain. The nomads agreed. The ministers were taught the rain dance. An auspicious day was fixed for the ministers to start their rain dance. The King and the entire kingdom watched and waited for the rain as the ministers meticulously completed all the dance steps. No rain came.

 The King was sure that the ministers had made a mistake and missed some steps and hence there was no rain. So he called the nomads again and requested them to check the dance steps of the ministers. The nomads checked and said “their dance step is perfect”.

The King asked them, “why hasn’t it rained yet? how do you get rainfall ”?

The nomads replied……………………….   “We dance till it rains”.

Any change has to be practiced till it becomes a new habit. I recall what Ramana Maharishi  said………”All efforts are towards effortlessness”. Till the new habit is formed, practice is necessary….

Geethan