On Habit Alain De Botton Analysis

Human minds dictate the appreciation that people have of things around them and the value that those things have. The author Alain de Botton in his essay "On Habit,” states how after returning to London from his vacations in Barbados and seeing how different it was from the place he has to live in, he thought that London was a horrible place and that there was nothing good or beautiful about the place he lives in. However, after analyzing Xavier Maistre's concept of room traveling and how with the right mindset even his own bedroom could offer a great adventure without the need of actually traveling and spending money, de Botton starts a journey of changing his own way of seeing things. Humans usually think that their surrounding are bad and …show more content…
The routine and everyday problems and needs make people go around without noticing what they are surrounded by, simply seeing it as obstacles on the way to their destinations or just a means to get there. While analyzing how people see their surroundings de Botton on his essay states that, " A bus, which we might at first have viewed as aesthetically or mechanically or as a springboard to thoughts about communities within cities, becomes simply a box to move us as rapidly as possible across an area which might as well not exist, so unconnected is it to our primary goal, outside of which all is darkness, all is invisible" (63). There are a lot of things to be noticed around a city or just a street, but people often just focus on their objective and forget about anything that will not be part of that goal so they just do not see anything else. Things like a bus or a train are seen as nothing else than a tool to reach the a certain destination when it could represent a lot more if seen for another point of view like for example the opportunity of meeting the members of the neighborhood. The “primary goal” or what people are trying to accomplish makes them blind of simple things like their community or just how the bus or the street looks like. De Botton gives another example of how people ignore what is around them when he says “The power of my …show more content…
Because of the fast speed on which people spend their days they start to just notice the things that have a direct connection with their goal or destination. As people get used to a place they stop looking around for what is interesting and just think that everything is boring and unimportant. If people change their mindsets and learn to look more closely to their cities, houses or whatever is around them, they will be able to realize how complex and beautiful those places and things are, but sometimes they are so busy that they would not even realize that they need to change the way their mind works. Changing the mindsets is different for all the people specially depending on their education level and their social class and it requires some effort, but it is possible for people to change their mindset so they can enjoy the pleasure of actually seen what is around