habits. memories.

So it's habits and memories that are important. That's true for character development and relationships as well, I think. Really about all we can give our children and ourselves are these: good habits and good memories. The one takes consistency and the other planning and both require being pleasant in the doing. He he he.

Confirmed again that experiences, in the form of habits or memories, shape us. Here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203806504577181351486558984.html

First, experience shapes the brain. People often think that if some ability is located in a particular part of the brain, that must mean that it's "hard-wired" and inflexible. But, in fact, the brain is so powerful precisely because it is so sensitive to experience. It's as true to say that our experience of controlling our impulses make the prefrontal cortex develop as it is to say that prefrontal development makes us better at controlling our impulses. Our social and cultural life shapes our biology.

Second, development plays a crucial role in explaining human nature. The old "evolutionary psychology" picture was that genes were directly responsible for some particular pattern of adult behavior—a "module." In fact, there is more and more evidence that genes are just the first step in complex developmental sequences, cascades of interactions between organism and environment, and that those developmental processes shape the adult brain. Even small changes in developmental timing can lead to big changes in who we become.