This is something even William James might have agreed…
This is something even William James might have agreed with. Posterity perhaps dwelled too much on his "set like plaster" com-ment. James occasionally adopted a more flexible take on habit, but these more broad-minded views aren't quoted as often by his successors. "James was almost obsessed with overcoming the lim-itations of habit formation," says John Kaag, a philosophy professor who has written about James. In his writing, James at times even praises people who act against their natures, recommending that one should "be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it." He argued that people do have natural tendencies, but that they can also override those tendencies-and sometimes should.
— from Who Is Flying (Self, Nature & Nurture)