If you believe you can change - if you make it a habit - the change becomes real.

All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits - practical, emotional, and intellectual - systematically organized for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever the latter may be." - William James

If you believe you can change—if you make it a habit—the change becomes real. This is the real power of habit: the insight that your habits are what you choose them to be. Once that choice occurs—and becomes automatic—it’s not only real, it starts to seem inevitable.

Habits aren’t destiny. Habits can be ignored, changed, or replaced. But the reason the discovery of the habit loop is so important is that it reveals a basic truth: 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.

Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.

It is facile to imply that smoking, alcoholism, overeating, or other ingrained patters can be upended without real effort. Genuine change requires work and self-understanding of the cravings driving behaviours.

Not one person in Kufa would have told me that we could influence crowds by taking away the kebab stands

When you learn to force yourself to practice for an hour or run fifteen laps, you start building self-regulatory strength.” Heatherton. The solution, Starbucks discovered, was turning self-discipline into an organizational habit.

Small wins are exactly what they sound like, and are part of how keystone habits create widespread changes.