Growing up as an introvert, the greatest escape for me was books.

It started with reading James Hardley Chase’s Safer Dead, then his other novels, then Dean Koons’s books, then John Grisham, by the time I started reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Bessie Head’s Maru, the habit of reading had already set it.

It was not really about being a genius or smarter than anyone, it was about being fortunate to acquire the habit of reading.

Over time, I have learned to appreciate the power of small habits acquired over time.

My mentor, Mr. Mike Muendane, would say habits are like drops of water, with every single drop, over time, those small drops, will form an ocean.

Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you are willing to stick with them for years.

We all deal with setbacks but in the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits.

With the same habits, you will end up with the same results. But with better habits, anything is possible.

Maybe there are people who can achieve incredible success overnight. I don’t know any of them, and I’m certainly not one of them.

The same principles of adopting reading books are the same as blogging. It started with one blog post once a month, and over time, it became one blog post every week and now daily.

We can achieve a lot, with the right habits.

Today is day one of a new habit.

As Aristotle said:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”