Habits are the auto pilot in our lives.  If we form good ones we will get good results.  Bad ones, likewise, produce results of their own kind.

Most of the significant problems we face in life are not the result of sudden calamity, though those are certainly to be encountered from time to time.  Rather, most of our problems were brought on slowly, over time, either by things we did wrong, or by things we didn't do that were right.

One of my favorite quotes comes from two characters in a novel.  One asks the other, "So how did you go bankrupt?" to which the other answers, "Very gradually, and then suddenly."

That's the way it is in our lives.  We abuse our body in little, consistent ways over the course of years.  Then one day we are sitting on a doctors table and get the bad news.  We are shocked, scared, and regretful.  But by then it's too late.  Financially speaking, it's the same way.  Nobody goes broke in a day.  Usually, it's the long term duplication of bad practices that add up over time.

Never underestimate the power of accumulated action over time.  Good action can produce staggeringly successful results.  Negligent actions can produce catastrophically dire consequences. 

As leaders, we understand that the choice is ours.  We don't get to pick the cards we're dealt, so to speak, but we are responsible for how we play them.  And don't think that everything depends on those initial cards.  I've studied enough successful people to realize that the dealing of the cards is never the complete story, just the "back story."  If you were dealt some pretty tough cards financially or physically, it doesn't mean that you can't overcome the odds and still gain some success.  It just means that it will be interesting and will demand the best you have to give.  But that's not so bad.  You're supposed to be giving your best, anyway!

So spend less time considering the hand you were dealt and give more attention to how you are going to play your cards.  Form good, productive, healthy, long-term, purpose-driven, integrity-rich habits.  Over time, which will in that case actually be on your side, you might just amaze yourself at how "the game" ends up.

Or, sew poor habits into your life and, rest assured, you will be heading for a train wreck.  The choice is yours.