book extract - The Ship of Theseus - Habit Handbook

Have you heard of the Ship of Theseus?

It’s a thought experiment by Thomas Hobbes, based on a story from Plutarch and originally, from Greek mythology. Theseus is one of the great Greek mythological figures and the founder-hero of Athens. The story goes:

Theseus owned a ship and the ship was entirely made of wood. Every time a piece of the ship needed replacing it was replaced with a metal part. This went on for a few years until eventually it was entirely made of metal.

The question we can’t help but ask is, once all the original parts have been replaced, is it still the same ship?

It’s a question you could debate for ever but the reason it’s pertinent to us here is that if we are what we repeatedly do, who do we become if we change those actions?

Like the Ship of Theseus, if you work to replace your existing habits with new ones, if you change those small actions that make up the building blocks of your day, eventually you will become a different person. You’ll still be you of course and you probably won’t be made of metal but you’ll be a different person by virtue of doing different things.

Profound personal change can happen all at once in unusual circumstances but for most of us, it’s a process of repetition, of swapping out those small pieces of wood for something else. We build ourselves up until after months or years, we appear to be made of something else entirely, even if we’re still the same person.

After all,

What is a person but a collection of choices - Westworld

We are choices. And what are our habits but the choices that we’ve made over and over again? Shape your habits and watch yourself become whatever kind of person you choose to be.