Life — Tools
Life
Tools
Seems that just about anything can be used as a tool to assist one in life. People, drugs, buildings, relationships, nature, alone time, books; all are used as tools.
If something helps a person in any way to accomplish something, it is a tool. To my way of thinking, as long as a tool helps to make something easier to accomplish it is to be used.
However, if a tool outlives its usefulness, and a person continues to use it, the tool is transformed into a habit or an addiction.
If a person continues to use a former tool because of inertia, then the tool has been transformed into a habit. A habit, once recognized, need no longer be a habit. Just discard the tool or use it to accomplish a different task.
If a person continues to use a former tool because the person has developed a reliance upon it, then the tool has been transformed into an addiction. (This can be a little tricky: Certain tools are almost always called additions after prolonged use, whether they're still tools or not. Only the person using the tool or having the addiction can truly say which it is.) An addiction, once recognized, need no longer be an addiction. Breaking an addiction can be hard or it can be easy. Much depends on how much physical or mental reliance has been placed on the former tool. If judgment enters in, judging oneself for having the addiction, then the addiction is made stronger – the more you focus on something, the more you have of it. A tool becomes an addiction when a tool is used to remedy a perceived lack in self, and then is relied upon like a crutch to maintain that remedy. Discover what it is that you think needs the crutch, transform any self-judgment into lover, and then decide that you can maintain and even improve without the tool.
