Habit

My mom shared stories with me, of how I'd given her a hard time whenever it came to brushing my teeth, as a kid. Most times I'd hide the toothbrush in some clearly obvious place (hahaha...), and then one time I'd emptied the toothpaste into the toilet, and off-course, how can we not have the typical chase of mother, toothbrush in hand, after child, in all this drama. And then as time progressed the resistance went away. On looking a little deeper, I now understand that the resistance went away primarily because of two reasons: 1. Whether I wanted to brush my teeth or not was never a consideration. So every time being forced to brush my teeth, my will (which was clearly misdirected) was silenced, a little bit at a time, and 2. The act of brushing the teeth was performed everyday without fail. By this, the mind started loosing it's sense of surprise of the action and started including it; again, a little bit at a time.

Moral of the story - To develop any new habit (which is discerned as beneficial) the self-willfulness consideration must be cancelled and the practice needs to be carried out everyday. Everyday.