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Once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power of habit becomes easier to grasp and the only option left is to get to work.
Charles Duhigg
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Understanding that habits can change empowers you to take control of your life and build better habits.

This quote emphasizes the transformative power of recognizing that habits are not fixed but can be reshaped and improved. It suggests that once one realizes they have the ability to change their habits, it brings both freedom and accountability, motivating individuals to actively engage in the process of personal development and change.

Themes

HabitsChangeResponsibilityPersonal DevelopmentFreedom

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could inspire a speech about personal growth at a self-improvement seminar.

More from Charles Duhigg

There is a calculus, it turns out, for mastering our subconscious urges. For companies like Target, the exhaustive rendering of our conscious and unconscious patterns into data sets and algorithms has revolutionized what they know about us and, therefore, how precisely they can sell.
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A huge amount of success in life comes from learning as a child how to make good habits. It's good to help kids understand that when they do certain things habitually, they're reinforcing patterns.
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When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit -- unless you find new routines -- the pattern will unfold automatically.
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Cravings are what drive habits. And figuring out how to spark a craving makes creating a new habit easier.
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Every habit is made of three parts... a cue, a routine and a habit. Most people focus on the routine and behavior, but these cues and rewards are really the way you make something into a habit.
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When marketers influence habits, they influence peoples' self-identity. And so when a group or company does something that doesn't correspond to our core values, it feels like a betrayal.
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