The definition of prejudice is as follows:
A preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
At its best, prejudice is simple matter of ignorance – a lack of knowledge/education.
At its worse, prejudice is indoctrinated hatred – indoctrinated by your parents or your environment into hating certain things about others that do not align with your ideology or beliefs.
Prejudice comes in many forms such as racism, religious bigotry, sexism, ethnic or cultural bias and sexual orientation intolerance.
It’s one thing to disagree with the way others go about their lives, but prejudice often elevates disagreement to hatred.
This prejudice Poor Habit is typically a Generational Habit. Generational Habits are passed down from one generation to the next.
Generational Habits are among the hardest habits to eliminate because they are inculcated in us at a very young age.
Nicolas Christakis, a Yale University professor and leading researcher on socially contagious behaviors, found that habits are contagious, passed along by our families and our environment.
According to a well-known Brown University study on habits by Dr. Pressman, we forge most of our habits, including thinking habits, by the age of nine. Thinking habits include our beliefs, attitudes and prejudices. Since we are primarily under the care of our parents as children, our parents are the font of many of the thinking habits we forge during our childhood. And these thinking habits stay with us into our adulthood.
But, like every habit, once you become aware that you have it, habit change becomes possible.
We live in a world where the prejudice Poor Habit has run amok. It’s been hijacked by politicians and their lackeys, with political agendas that require pitting segments of society against one another. It’s called Identity Politics and the objective of Identity Politics is to incite prejudice in order to drive a wedge into society and divide us.
Unfortunately, it is an agenda that is succeeding.
If human beings are to live in harmony with one another, it’s imperative that this prejudice Poor Habit be eliminated.
Awareness opens the door to all habit change. Self-assessment forces awareness and makes habit change possible. That is why Self-Assessment is the first Rich Habit. Self-assessment starts the habit change process.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, “Effort-Less Wealth”, “Change Your Habits Change Your Life”, “Rich Habits Poor Habits” and “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.”
