Habits and its impact on relationships

Habits.....good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, productive or unproductive....the list can go on. The discussion can last for hours and hours when it comes to habits and changing habits. But one thing which is really necessary to brainstorm while talking about habits is its effect on relationships no matter whether the habits are good, bad, healthy, unhealthy, productive, or unproductive. Irrespective of what is the nature of the habit, it has a major impact on the relationships one has with others in addition to impacting own selves. Whether it is an arranged marriage or love marriage, we all know that the things that the people/ family involved considers before taking a decision to select a life partner is family background, education, looks and hobbies. Yes, we often find that people tend to think that these are the main qualities to be considered before selecting life partner. These qualities are definitely important but the most important factor that we often miss to focus on is 'Habits'. Both the individuals needs to spend their lives together and if most of their habits are totally opposite, the relationship affects adversely. I trust that you all will agree that in our day to day lives more time is spent on the tasks related to our duties and responsibilities rather than on our hobbies. Still while selecting a life partner we do not give any importance to checking habits, instead we mostly focus on checking each others career, family, looks, etc and then we see that full life, instead of enjoying and spending good moments together, unnecessary arguments take place due to different habits which impacts not only the partners but also their families. This makes me think about my close friend Rose. She has been married since 10 years and has never complained about any of the habits of her husband (Joe). Instead, I see them both enjoying and spending nice time together always and doing things together. I remember once Rose had told me that when her parents made her meet Joe 10 years back most of the questions Joe and Rose had asked each other before taking decision to marry each other were on each other's habits. Although their habits were not matching 100%, both liked cleanliness and simple lifestyle. Rose always tells me that even though our habits did not match 100% then, but the major habits and mindset were same which helped both of them to live peacefully and adapt to each other's lifestyle.

Thus, we all need to remember constantly that our habits impacts our relationships with others no matter whether it is our relationship with spouse, children, friends, employer or general society. Hence, considering this we should learn to give up habits that not only affects ourselves but our relationships with others specially our near and dear ones. Next time when you enter into an argument or disagreement with someone, think carefully if it is due to your non-healthy or bad or unproductive habit and then try to change it for a healthy, good and productive relationship.