60 days and nights of fasting? 12 months of “all night” prayers screaming our lungs out in tongues? drinking anointing oil and bathing in the holiest of waters from Israel. None of these can cast out a bad character!

Tell you what, a bad habit is like bad food. There’s absolutely nothing spiritual about it. A bad habit is like a faulty car. You don’t need prayers to fix it. All you need to do is to get on your knees, diagnose it… and fix it!

I have observed some people hop from one church to other apparently to cast out some demons supposedly sitting on their destiny. They attribute their failures to everything and everyone except themselves. Their failed marriages? failed businesses? failed plans. It’s always some unseen devil scheming in the background.

You see, oftentimes, the only devil sitting on our destiny is our bad character. Our bad habit may be the only reason we are where we are. When a man has a bad habit, his household witches leave him alone because he would do to himself what they would have done to him. Haha. We are where we are today because of what we repeatedly did yesterday. We are who we are today courtesy our habits; whether good or bad. If we ever want to change our future, thus, it goes without saying that we need to change our habits. These habits come into being by how we think (mentality), what we hear and what we read (or see)— and these can affect the entirety of our lives. They can be the stumbling block standing in our way. What you read is as important as what you hear. You never know the importance of what you read until it starts affecting how you think. What you hear is equally essential because it eventually influences your thoughts, too. You sometimes can’t choose what enters through your ears but you can always choose what stays there!

Twins who, for instance, have grown in two different environments and exposed to different schools of thought would behave differently because what we hear and see affect our thoughts and our thoughts eventually become our habits. Oftentimes, the mountains some of us need to overcome in our lives are mountains we have gradually built with our bad attitudes.

Mind you, an attitude, like weight, is formed gradually— minute by minute— day by day. Too often, the headaches we are facing as a nation have nothing to with a two-horned demon of a Satan. It’s all about bad attitudes joyfully competing for whose is worst. The challenges most couples battle with, oftentimes, has something or everything to do with a bad attitude. On countless occasions, the war many businesses are waging within is a war of bad attitudes by employees! Bad attitude here. Bad attitude there. Bad attitude everywhere. It has always been a bad attitude thing. Forget demons.

Take a look at the gulf between our part of the world and the West when it comes to development. It’s not about absence of skills. It’s even not about lack of gadgets and facilities. It’s all a bad attitude thing. Bribery. Corruption. Bad leaders and worse citizens. Name them.

A bad attitude has got nothing to do with demons. It has nothing to do with spirituality. The first thing to check for a failing life is your attitude… not some demons. A bad character is like an injury. It will eventually kill you if not treated!

Little wonder some bad attitudes have collapsed companies. Others have sadly collapsed their own marriages after only a few months of tying the knot. This demon called bad character will lead us everywhere except where we actually need to be.

Many times, we are our own demons. We build painstakingly and tear it down again. Your help won’t come even if you drink thousands of barrels of anointing oil. Your life won’t change for any better even if the greatest of men of God laid all their hands and feet on you. Check your attitudes. Simple! Check your bad attitude of lust. Check that of extortion. Check your pride. Sometimes, what we need to do to progress is to accept our faults and change accordingly instead of blaming them on some demons.

Sometimes, the only anointing oil you need is to stay away from infidelity. Sometimes, the only fasting you need is to fasten your lust. Sometimes, the only prayers you need is to stop preying on young women who walk into your closet for help. Just stop it!

A bad attitude is not cured by spirituality. Your bad attitudes won’t vanish because you strapped a crucifix around your neck. It takes a conscious, daily effort to change what you’ve repeatedly being doing daily. Yes you can. Before you go checking for which demon is sitting on your neck… check the character sitting in your heart!

The writer is a playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com), a writing company based in Accra which provides all writing services.